The Case for Art

A few months ago I decided to purchase a set of watercolor pencils for art and nature study. After a bad experience with Loew Cornell pencils a few years back, I'd all but given up on watercolor pencils. But a Faber-Castell kit I found on clearance changed my mind! The pencils drew beautifully, and the watercolor feature actually worked. With only 10 colors, though, artistic options were limited. Eventually, I realized that pencils would be easier to transport (and far less messy!) than regular paints, so I bought a set of 48 Faber-Castell pencils and an inexpensive set of water brushes. 

But if transportation was going to be easy, I needed a good way to store our new pencils. I wanted something compact that would allow us to see all of the colors (i.e., not a regular pencil pouch). I discovered standing pencil pouches, and finally found a free pattern -- in Korean! Between the photos and video, I was able to figure it out. 

I didn't enjoy the sewing process much, due to how fiddly the construction could be -- I certainly made good use of my seam ripper... But it seemed foolish to purchase a case when I had all of the needed supplies on hand! I used some Birch Organics Tree Stripes in "Sun" (leftover from Rosa's Christmas PJs), a spare zipper, and scraps of heavy interfacing. 

And happily, it turned out in the end! I did make it a bit larger than the case in the tutorial, and in hindsight that was unnecessary. But it functions well, and our pencils are now accessible and tidy.   

We're studying birds in our Zoology curriculum this year, so we purchased a used copy of Drawing Cute Birds in Colored Pencil by Ai Akikusa -- it's excellent! We've only tried sparrows so far, but I'm quite impressed by the ease of the instructions. We have the companion Drawing Cute Animals book, too.

It's lovely to have our art supplies ready to go at a moment's notice -- better accessibility means more time and opportunities for making art!