Arts and Crafts seem to be the big ‘go to’ in our house for my youngest daughter. Her birthday list is currently full of arty things, and she will quite happily take herself off for a couple of hours to design or create something. One of the most sought-after things for her is new pens or pencils, especially ones that are just a little bit different or that will give her an effect that she can’t already get.
For her, one of the most frustrating things is when she can’t get the vividness of colour that she wants if she’s drawing on something she’s made from an old cardboard box, and when she can’t draw on dark paper. She has all of these ideas in her mind, but the tools she has in her art box just won’t allow her to create things exactly as she had envisaged.
STABILO’s Woody 3 in 1 pencils promise to do both of these things and more, and looked to be the perfect thing for her to try out to, especially during the Easter holidays. The Woodys come in several different pack sizes and we were sent the 10-pack to try out. The pencils are really chunky and feel lovely in your hand – because of their size, they are perfect for little hands to grip, as well as still being very comfy and easy to use for grown-up hands too.
The Woody 10-pack contains a great range of colours: red, orange, yellow, lime green, deep green, sky blue, purple, brown, black and peach, as well as the special (larger) pencil sharpener designed for the Woodys. It’s not just the barrel that is thick and chunky, the lead is too, which means that in spite of their slightly short stature, each pencil contains the colour of around 8 normal colouring pencils, and will last 8 times longer.
Having said that, calling them colouring pencils doesn’t do them justice. They can certainly be used as normal colouring pencils, and when they are used as such, the colours that the produce are so much richer, deeper and more opaque than any other colouring pencil I have ever used. But the Woody pencils are also paint sticks (just dip the end in a small amount of water and they go on to a surface like a poster paint, but with an awful lot less mess! For slightly older children, they work brilliantly as a watercolour pencil too – my daughter lightly coloured her picture with them and then used a paintbrush to get a water colour effect. When used like this, they mix brilliantly well too, so you can get some really cool shaded or gradient effects as well as being able to create your own colours.
I think my daughter’s favourite use for them though was being able to write and draw on dark coloured paper whilst still retaining their bright and vibrant colouring. They are absolutely perfect for drawing on the cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes that she loves building things out of for her dollies. Finally, they can also be used to draw on glass and tiles – this isn’t something that we have been able to try our yet, but I am sure we will be doing in the not too distant future.
My daughter (and I!) have had a great time with the Woody pencils this Easter holidays, and they are such good fun to use. They create much less mess than paints or oil pastels, but still provide the lovely bright colour that you can usually only get with messier products, and the small amount that my daughter did get on her top has washed out in the normal wash. A great hit in our house and highly recommended.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £21
For more information or to buy, visit stabilo.com.
