Home Forums Explore Media Colored Pencil Boxes vs Tins for Full Range Pencil Sets

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  • #994465
    artdragon86
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        I was browsing my local art supply store’s website earlier today (didn’t end up buying anything for once) and I noticed that while full ranges of certain art supplies are often offered in metal tins AND wooden boxes, some companies only offer their complete range in a big, fancy wooden box.

        Does anyone else find this annoying? Sure, those wooden boxes are beautiful, but they generally add $100-150 to the price, which isn’t worth it when I’ll admire the box for five minutes and then ignore it to concentrate on the product itself. Not just that, those wooden boxes often take up half as much space again as the same set in a metal tin. I could buy a smaller set and then buy the remaining colours separately, but this would still end up much more expensive than being able to buy the set in a tin outright, and then I’d have to find somewhere to store those single pencils.

        I’m specifically referring to some of the Caran d’Ache pencil sets here but I’ve seen it with pastel sets, too. It just seems odd that they wouldn’t give people the option of buying a metal tin when they must know a lot of us artists would rather save money on the packaging and just get the drawing supplies.

        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
        Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

        #1258544
        floyd
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            I think the wooden boxes are too bulky and heavy to be useful. I think they intend for this to be your only set, placed proudly on your desk like a jewelry box. As many as I have, they would break the desk if they were in wood. Caran d’ache has/had very nice tins, with nice metal trays and beautiful graphics, which have become collectible. I think it’s ashamed they are moving to a cheap paper foam lined box. It seems like we deserve one nice thing, everything doesn’t have to be cheap. The price isn’t. I was going to buy a set of Luminance, but when I saw the cheap box, I decided I’d just be happy with the open stock set I already have. The thing about open stock is that while they cost more in the long run, they allow you to build up your set a few at a time, so as not to impact your budget.

            http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/20-Mar-2015/49857-signature.jpg https://www.facebook.com/myartpage

            #1258553
            artdragon86
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                I think the wooden boxes are too bulky and heavy to be useful. I think they intend for this to be your only set, placed proudly on your desk like a jewelry box. As many as I have, they would break the desk if they were in wood. Caran d’ache has/had very nice tins, with nice metal trays and beautiful graphics, which have become collectible. I think it’s ashamed they are moving to a cheap paper foam lined box. It seems like we deserve one nice thing, everything doesn’t have to be cheap. The price isn’t. I was going to buy a set of Luminance, but when I saw the cheap box, I decided I’d just be happy with the open stock set I already have. The thing about open stock is that while they cost more in the long run, they allow you to build up your set a few at a time, so as not to impact your budget.

                True. I have small sets of Luminance and Supracolour (16 and 18 respectively) in tins which I bought from eBay quite a few years ago. A couple of weeks ago I went to an art supply sale at the shop near Dad’s work and got the 12 colour set of Museum Aquarelle but it was in one of the cardboard boxes like you described. I had assumed this was only for the small sets (they didn’t have any other sets on display, or if they did, I couldn’t see them) so it’s a shame if even the big sets will now come in the cardboard box (especially as they are also bulkier than the tins, though nowhere near as bad as the wooden boxes). I wouldn’t mind buying them in a cardboard box as opposed to the wooden box, though, if only I could actually find them :(

                Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
                Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

                #1258565
                otherworlder
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                    Lyra Polycolor offers their complete range in wood box only for like $20 more. I think it was $90 for the set? It is a very inconvenient box unfortunately, flat and way too big. My favorite colored packaging is probably Tombow’s Irojiten; those small hard cardboard box “volumes” are amazing. Now if the pencils are a little bit better…

                    #1258554
                    artdragon86
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                        Lyra Polycolor offers their complete range in wood box only for like $20 more. I think it was $90 for the set? It is a very inconvenient box unfortunately, flat and way too big. My favorite colored packaging is probably Tombow’s Irojiten; those small hard cardboard box “volumes” are amazing. Now if the pencils are a little bit better…

                        That isn’t a bad price difference, but as you say, it’s a false economy if the size/shape of the box makes it difficult to store and use. I actually have two wooden box sets of pencils already: Derwent’s Coloursoft 72 range and their Artists range of 120 colours. The only reason I bought them in boxes was because they were ‘secondhand’ on eBay but all the pencils were pretty much unused, and the prices for these boxes worked out far cheaper than buying a new tin (in the case of the Coloursofts) or buying the 72 tin of Artists and then getting the rest individually. They basically take up a whole desk drawer and though they are lovely, I actually use them a lot less than my other pencils because they’re such a pain in the bum to find room for on or around my desk.

                        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
                        Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

                        #1258547
                        ManedWolf
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                            I definitely prefer tins. Wooden boxes are clumsy and expensive. Right now the Faber-Castell 120 tin costs 225 € and the 120 wooden box 330 € and if I’m not wrong, there are even more overpriced wooden boxes.

                            https://www.faber-castell.de/produkte/art-und-graphic/albrecht-duerer?orderBy=top_seller&itemsPerPage=45&page=1

                            I’m not very fond of cardboard boxes either. Over the years I have bought more than a dozen of veeeery cheap tins like this 4.95 € one

                            for open stock and cardboard-boxed pencils. These veeeery cheap pencils are usually too bad to be given to the local kindergarten so I throw them right to the rubbish bin and keep just the tin.

                            Heikki

                            #1258546
                            Wassie
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                                I prefer tins but there is one thing that aggravates me about them … and that is that the lids are not hinged. I wish they were so that they would stay with the bottom layer.

                                #1258548
                                ManedWolf
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                                    I prefer tins but there is one thing that aggravates me about them … and that is that the lids are not hinged. I wish they were so that they would stay with the bottom layer.

                                    Aww yesss. The best multi-storey tins are those of Caran d’Ache and Faber-Castell: hinged lids and sturdy trays that are easy to lift.

                                    To me it seems that removable lids as well as cardboard packages are becoming more and more usual.

                                    Heikki

                                    #1258555
                                    artdragon86
                                    Default

                                        I prefer tins but there is one thing that aggravates me about them … and that is that the lids are not hinged. I wish they were so that they would stay with the bottom layer.

                                        Funnily enough, I prefer the tins where you can take the lid right off :lol: With the Derwent ones, I sit the lid under the tin so it’s out of the way, but with my FC Polychromos pencils, I often end up knocking the tin off the table because the lid protrudes and I accidentally bump it :rolleyes:

                                        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
                                        Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

                                        #1258566
                                        otherworlder
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                                            I wish more art supply makers will make creative and functional packaging like this… But again the pencils themselves according to many reviews I have seen are very mediocre, sigh.

                                            #1258556
                                            artdragon86
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                                                I wish more art supply makers will make creative and functional packaging like this… But again the pencils themselves according to many reviews I have seen are very mediocre, sigh.

                                                [IMG]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/01-Oct-2016/1968973-s-l1600.jpg[/IMG]

                                                This looks cool in theory, but I think if I had that box, I’d find it harder to find the colours I want. I prefer to have my trays all laid out so I can see what colours I have at a glance. Eg. If I wanted a specific green, I’d have to keep opening up all the greens to find it lol

                                                I would love it if Derwent – or all pencil manufacturers – sold empty tins big enough to hold their full range.

                                                Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
                                                Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

                                                #1258545
                                                floyd
                                                Default

                                                    I’ve searched the internet looking for nice metal pencil tins with trays. I thought for sure somebody would make them. No luck. It would be a good opportunity for somebody that could do metalwork. I’ll just stick with my holiday candy tins for open stock.
                                                    -Floyd

                                                    http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/20-Mar-2015/49857-signature.jpg https://www.facebook.com/myartpage

                                                    #1258549
                                                    ManedWolf
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                                                        I’ve searched the internet looking for nice metal pencil tins with trays. I thought for sure somebody would make them. No luck. It would be a good opportunity for somebody that could do metalwork. I’ll just stick with my holiday candy tins for open stock.
                                                        -Floyd

                                                        Perhaps 3D printing soon becomes so inexpensive that trays and relatively sturdy lightweight plastic boxes would be easy to make and market?

                                                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

                                                        Or maybe Cheap Joe, Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artarama or some other very large store could be persuaded to import and sell empty tins made in Europe or China?

                                                        Aren’t there really any dime store tins like

                                                        https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB19Q22FVXXXXapXFXXq6xXFXXXx/200086080/HTB19Q22FVXXXXapXFXXq6xXFXXXx.jpg or

                                                        https://www.prisma.fi/wcsstore/PRISMA_StorefrontAssetStore/images/product/iso/6410411520778_kuva1.jpg

                                                        available in the American supermarkets or craft shops?

                                                        Heikki

                                                        #1258552
                                                        G.C.
                                                        Default

                                                            Have you considered using cigar boxes to storage your colored pencils?

                                                            [FONT=Century Gothic]Gladys

                                                            #1258557
                                                            artdragon86
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                                                                Have you considered using cigar boxes to storage your colored pencils?

                                                                That’s not a bad idea, though most of the cigar boxes I’ve seen are relatively small and could only hold maybe 12-24 pencils.

                                                                I’m gradually working my way up to full sets of CDA’s Luminance and Museum pencils, each of which has about 76 colours. Another thing that would worry me about cigar tins is that the pencils might bump around a lot since they wouldn’t have those little trays with slots for each pencil to keep them in place.

                                                                Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
                                                                Rebecca ~ http://artdragon86.wordpress.com/

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