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| Utrecht Colored Pencils |
Not too many years ago, Seattle had several good brick-and-mortar
art supply stores. One was Utrecht on Capitol Hill. Catering to art students at
nearby Gage Academy and Seattle Central College, it was the first store where I
found a full selection of Stillman & Birn sketchbooks when they first
came out (maybe around 2012). Just beginning as a sketcher then, I was
intimidated by all the painting supplies I saw at Utrecht, but I found the
staff pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful, so I kept going there for
sketchbooks.
Only a couple of years later, Utrecht was purchased by Blick,
and the building occupied by Utrecht eventually opened in 2014 as the brand new
Starbucks Roastery and Reserve. I got a good deal on several S&B
sketchbooks at Utrecht’s closeout sale, feeling sad for the glum-looking staff
who seemed uncertain about their future. Later I learned that Blick had bought
the entire chain of 45 Utrecht stores. Eventually Utrecht’s Czech Republic-made
products became Blick-branded.
This backstory is the reason I own a used set of Utrecht
Color pencils, which I picked up a while back at Tinkertopia. Stopping
at the art and craft supply thrift store to drop off my donations
of art supplies that I was getting rid of, I was not supposed to
buy anything, but I couldn’t resist poking around. Digging through the pencils,
I found this barely used set. I knew they couldn’t be considered “vintage,” but
I also knew that Utrecht-branded pencils no longer existed. In a moment of
nostalgia and desire to preserve a former pencil name, I felt compelled to grab
them.
I remembered that in the set of Blick Studio colored
pencils I had purchased a few years ago, one of the 24 pencils was branded
Utrecht Color, and it looks just like the ones in the Utrecht set. Product
information on Blick’s site then said that while some sets may contain a mix of
Blick- and Utrecht-branded pencils, the quality was identical (well, the core quality might be the same, but the Blick Studio pencils have unfinished ends, while Utrecht Color pencils have attractively rounded end caps). According to
Blick’s site now, Blick Studio colored pencils are still made in the Czech Republic.
(This is part of my series of occasional posts that are
not really reviews but stories about products I find notable for one reason or
another.)
I appreciate these posts about products. I get to learn something new!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear you enjoy them! I have many more to share! ;-)
DeleteYou made me look!😉 I knew that at least one of the pencils in my dry pencil collection said Utrecht. Sure enough,the Naples Yellow pencil in the batch of Blick Studio pencils I bought in the past year is labeled Utrecht. It has same white band, gold band, and enameled end cap that you show in the picture, but the Czech label is also gold lettering. What I wonder is how does the quality compare with your other dry colored pencils?
ReplyDeleteI like Blick/Utrecht colored pencils! For the price, in fact, I'd put them at the top of the heap. Please see my review of Blick Studio pencils.
DeleteAny idea what an untouched set of Utrecht Color Pencils would go for? I have a boxed set of Utrecht Brand colored pencils and drawing pencils. Looks like there are about 73 Colored Pencils, 1 Blender, and 26 Drawing Pencils.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, hard to say. Although the brand is no longer available, they are not vintage, and the cores are the same as current Blick pencils, so I'm not sure they would be much higher valued than Blick's.
DeleteThat's kind of what I figured. I'm going to list it on eBay and was trying to find a Blick equivalent for the set I have, but there isn't one. I'll just have to make my best guess. Thanks for getting back to me! I really appreciate it.
Delete