Product Review: Hashi Pastel Holder

 

Some of my many Neocolor II stubs. 

Last week, I complained that I keep breaking my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons. At home, I can use a stub as is until it’s too short to hold comfortably. In the field, though, the problem is worse: Stubs fall to the bottom of my crayon holder and become irretrievable or forgotten.

I started looking around for an extender that would make it possible to use broken crayons on location. Not many will accommodate 9mm crayons. The best is probably the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil Pastel Holder, which is intended for use with Cd’A’s own Neocolor I, Neocolor II and Neoart pastels. But at more than $36, it seemed like a typically overpriced (and overbuilt) Caran d’Ache product. If it’s like the lead holders that came with the Museum Aquarelle lead set, the pastel holder will be well made but built like a tank – and too heavy to use comfortably.

I eventually found Hashi Pastel Holders, which came in a two-pack. At less than four bucks each, the price was right, but the design was unexpected. Intended for use with traditional soft oil pastels, they have the benefit of accommodating varying sizes of pastels by opening like a clamp. Skeptical, I wondered if the jaws would slip on wax pastels, which are harder than soft oil pastels, but they don’t seem to.

Hashi Pastel Holders

A straightforward but unexpected design: Pinching the end at left opens the jaws, where the stub is inserted.

One of my favorite greens back in service!

The holders are made of lightweight plastic, which is exactly what I want. The downside is that they are bulky, and my tiny, slim (actually, a bit chunky lately), everyday-carry bag has no millimeter of space to spare. Inserting a small stub of a favorite green that had broken in two places, I crammed one into my overstuffed bag anyway (time for a much-needed diet, I’m afraid).

I took it out for its first outing last Sunday to Bothell Landing. So far, it’s doing its job, taking even the shortest of Neocolor II stubs without slipping.

Speaking of my Neocolor IIs, here’s an update for those who may have been experiencing sympathetic anxiety on my behalf: I found my Cobalt Blue! As reported a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Cobalt Blue and Emerald Green were missing from their usual storage container. Cobalt turned up in my life-drawing bag when I went to drink & draw at Gage Academy last week. I had forgotten that I kept a few Neocolors in that bag. Unfortunately, Emerald Green wasn’t among them and is still at large.

Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

 

I succumbed: The Caran d'Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

I fell off the wagon. No judging, please.

During a week of high stress and anxiety, I saw that Goldspot Pens had the Caran d’Ache Paul Smith Special Edition Bicolors set in stock, and after months of resisting, I crumbled. Bicolors are my weakness! C’est la vie.

Like Cd’A’s first set of colored pencils in collaboration with British fashion designer Paul Smith (released in 2020), the latest bicolors set features Smith’s design palette and trademark stripes on the tin and sleeve. I must admit that the tin design appeals to me more than the palette. In particular, I like the thin, subtle strip of stripes on the lid’s lip on an otherwise solid black tin.

This is my favorite part of the tin -- the subtle strip of stripes on the tin's lip.

Unlike that first tin, which contained Supracolors, the latest edition contains bicolors – 12 water-soluble pencils (24 colors) and a small watercolor brush. Each pencil is stamped with “Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith” in silver. (It’s intriguing that the 2020 set puts Smith’s name first: Paul Smith + Caran d’Ache. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall when the discussion took place for that change.)

Before I even used the pencils, I was aghast by the factory sharpening: Very messy collars (that’s the type of thing I’ve seen on cheap pencils from China and India) – I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Caran d’Ache pencils that were as badly presented as these. And look at the big chip in the pink one on the left! Shame on you, Caran d’Ache.

Very sloppy collars and a huge chip

The Smith-curated palette is very . . . fashionable, I guess? Unsaturated and sophisticated, it’s a nice counterbalance to the Supracolor set, which has a more vibrant range. Although it’s not at all a range I would pick out for myself, it’s not bad for urban sketching, and it also has a good range of values (ever since my experiments inspired by the wacky Germanier palette, I find myself viewing hues as values as well as temperature). It’s not great for landscapes, though – it’s short on natural greens.

Swatches made in Hahnemuhle Akademie watercolor sketchbook. I used my Prismalo swatch page to identify as many colors as I could. 

Now let’s get to the all-important cores. A couple of months ago when the set was announced, a reader brought an interesting controversy to my attention (see comments at end of this unrelated post). Apparently the new Smith set, along with last year’s Alpine Frost holiday collection, contains student-grade Swisscolor cores. That would be a significant step down from all the previous bicolor sets, which were promoted by Caran d’Ache as containing Prismalo cores. (How insulting to Smith! Perhaps a reflection on the change in branding to put his name after Caran d’Ache’s? The plot thickens.) The reader later reported that when she asked the question directly to Cd’A’s Instagram account, she was told the Smith set actually contained Supracolor cores:

“Just to reassure you, these bi-colour pencils are actually made with our Supracolor leads, not Swisscolor. We hope you’ll enjoy their quality and performance!”

First of all, even without calipers, I could easily see that the Smith cores are too thin to be Supracolors. A few swatches were all it took to convince me that the marketing person who responded to the inquiry was sadly misinformed: These are definitely not Supracolor cores, which are much softer and creamier.

Smith bicolor at left, Supracolor at right: No way are these the same core!

The next question, then, is whether they are student-grade Swisscolor cores or, like the previous bicolor sets, the mid-grade Prismalo cores. I hadn’t used Prismalos in a while, so I refreshed my memory with a few swatches, and they are as I had remembered them: Much softer than the Smith bicolors.

My large set of Swisscolors was dispatched during my downsizing the past couple of years. However, I still have a small set that came with the kids’ travel kit I got a few years ago (a-ha – as silly as that purchase was, it came in handy after all!). I compared a few swatches.

Sample Swisscolor swatches from my large set

The bicolors’ hardness and dryness seem closer to Swisscolors than Prismalos. However, it’s important to look at the washes, not just the dry swatches. Often the pigment content of a water-soluble pencil becomes more apparent in its wash than in its dry state. When I compare the washed bicolor swatches to washed Swisscolors and Prismalos, they look closer to Prismalo. Since we can’t get a straight answer from Caran d’Ache, we may not be able to know for certain, but I’m unconvinced that they are Swisscolors.

Sample Prismalo swatches

Miffed by the drop in quality and Cd’A’s lack of transparency, I still had to make a sketch with them (below). Taking a cue from my recent experiments with trying on the themed Blick Neocolor II palettes, I challenged myself to use as many colors in the Smith bicolor set as possible. Even as an experiment, 24 colors in one sketch are a bit much, and I lost count at some point, but I used at least one side of each bicolor and several of the opposite sides, too. While that’s certainly more colors than I would ever normally use together in one sketch, they don’t look too bad together. I guess Paul Smith knows what he’s doing.

As for Caran d’Ache . . . one disappointment after another.

6/9/26 Paul Smith bicolors in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

Paper Review: UglyPads

 

New UglyPads -- glue-bound sheets just right for making sketchbooks!

Way back when I first started using colorful Uglybooks, one of my first thoughts was that I wished they made an edition that included multi-colored pages in one book. I suggested as much to my contact there, and they liked the idea, but they wanted to see how well their then-new product line would go before developing new products. Fair enough.

Now, four years later, it hasn’t happened yet, but the next best thing has: UglyPads! In a 9-by-12-inch size, the glue-bound pads contain the same richly colored, 175 gsm paper as the Uglybooks sketchbooks I love so much. Each pad contains five sheets each of five colors, and four colorways are available.

Juicebox contains most of my favorite midtone colors.

Uglybooks offered to send me one pad of my choice, so I chose Juicebox, which includes most of my favorite Uglybooks colors (the ones that work well as midtones against black and white inks). With much excitement, on the day the pad arrived, I cut a few sheets in half, then folded and stapled them into a 4 ½-by-6-inch book. (Although I have a corner rounder, it’s tedious to use, so I didn’t bother with this first book; perhaps eventually). I’m thrilled to have the multi-colored book I have always wanted!

In addition, the finished size is a smidge larger in each dimension (closer to a true A6) than Uglybooks, which gives me a little more page real estate. Nice!

Finally, the multi-colored Uglybook I have always wanted!

My only complaint is that the glue binding is a bit coarse, so when sheets are removed, the edges end up rough. Although it’s not a deal-breaker, I had to trim off the edges before binding.

Cover sticker by Draplin Design Co.

Even more important than being able to make my dream Uglybook is that this solution resolves a larger issue I’d been worrying about for a while. Despite the large stash I had acquired, I am now running low on the original saddle-stitched (stapled) books I fell in love with. In 2024, much to my initial horror, Uglybooks switched to a perfect binding. To my relief, the binding does open flatter than most perfect-bound notebooks, but it doesn’t stay open (annoying during USk throwdowns). Although I can tolerate them, I have never fully embraced them as a replacement for simple, stapled books.

After my supply of saddle-stitched books runs out, would I be forced to settle for perfect-bound books or – heaven forfend – stop using colored paper!? No! Now that I can staple together my own books using the same beautiful papers, that dilemma has been eliminated. Whew! Another first-world sketcher problem evaded!

My Teeny-Tiny Sendak

 

The Sendak Nutshell -- just right for crayons!

I have a big one. I have a small one. And now I have a teeny-tiny one! Peg & Awl, one of my favorite sketch kit accessory makers, has come out with a scaled-down version of their ever-popular Sendak artist roll. Adorably called the Nutshell, it was exactly what I was looking for to solve my problem of carrying Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons on location.

Shorter than pencils, crayons are difficult to dig out of the Rickshaw Waldo case I’ve long used for pencils. I briefly tried putting a few crayons into one of my larger Sendaks, but that failed immediately. The slots are made for pens and pencils, and if a crayon got pushed in too deep within a slot, it was really difficult to get it out.

Last summer I used the bulkier Rickshaw Sinclair to carry crayons, which wasn’t ideal, either. While its padding did protect the somewhat fragile crayons, and the crayons could stand upright and accessible, I couldn’t really see the colors easily without pulling all of them out.

I kept thinking that eventually the right kind of case would appear – and then it did! The Sendak Nutshell’s slots are about 5 inches deep – too short for full-length pencils but just right for 4-inch crayons. And six slots are ideal for my wacky palette or any limited palette.

Of course, it doesn’t fit into my daily-carry, mini-size Rickshaw Zero Messenger Bag, so I still need an auxiliary tote bag, but I’m resigned to needing one for any sketch outing (other than fitness walks) anyway. It works best at cafés where I have a table to open it up, and it’s small enough that it doesn’t take up much space on the tabletop.

Small enough to easily spread open on a cafe table. Yeah, I broke the red one :-( ... not in the case but from my heavy-handed drawing!

I’m not sure how it’s going to work when I’m standing while sketching, but I’ll try propping it up inside my bag the same way I did with the Sinclair last summer. I’m looking forward to a day of drier, warmer weather when I can test that out. For now, I’m happy to continue sketching indoors with crayons, now that I have the teeny-tiny Sendak.

An adorable acorn on the strap!

My Sendak family: Papa, mama and their new offspring.

Unexpected: Caran d’Ache + Germanier Colour Set

 

Now that's a tin worth having!

Even as the Caran d’Ache Alpine Frost Bicolors set disappointed me, another newish Caran d’Ache product inspired and interested me more than I expected: the Caran d’Ache + Germanier Colour set (available at Blick). While I don’t go after every celebrity special edition (which Cd’A puts out fairly often), this one called to me because of the unusual color selection and especially the brightly colored metal tin.

A collaboration with Swiss fashion designer Kévin Germanier, the set includes Supracolors in standard colors, Supracolors in metallic colors and four neon colors. Although the metallic colors do not have the water-soluble icon, they are, indeed, water-soluble (as seen in my swatches). 

None of the colors are new or “special” to the Germanier set; they have just been branded as a “special edition,” and some pencils include Germanier’s bubbly icon (symbolizing his over-the-top, bead-laden fashions that he is known for).

Swatched in Hahnemuhle student-grade watercolor sketchbook (as usual, my scanner is not able to show neon colors well)

The four neons are not part of the Supracolor line, as seen by the uncapped ends.

Although the metallics are part of the Supracolor line, their cores are slightly thinner than standard Supracolors.

As with most of these artist/designer collaboration sets, purchasing the set gives free access to an online Creative Class by the celebrity. Whenever I’ve purchased these special editions, I’ve viewed the videos to see what they are about, and some are more inspiring than others. For example, a few years ago when I bought the Beya Rebaï Neocolor II sets, I was intrigued enough by her unusual palette (which was very not-me) that I carried it around for a while to shake up my urban sketching. I even found equivalents in Museum Aquarelle pencils so that I could further experiment with the palette without having to use crayons. It was an informative exercise in color temperature and using colors picked out by someone else (which is always a weird but eye-opening experience).

Since Germanier is a fashion designer, I wasn’t interested in his subject matter, but his unexpected mix of neon and metal was intriguing enough. Although I wouldn’t call the video a “class” or even a tutorial, he gave a spontaneous demo of his approach to sketching an initial design concept.

Kevin Germanier

He “loves” making gradients by blending unexpected hues, like neon green with dark green or neon yellow with metallic gold. Although he didn’t talk much about values directly, it was clear to me as I watched him work that he was applying basic value principles to his wacky palette. For example, he used gold to shade the model’s neon yellow hair. He reserved the darkest standard colors – Ultramarine, Dark Carmine, Grass Green and Black – for the darkest values. (As we’ve all heard, even if grass is red and trees are purple, the work will still “read” correctly if you get the values right.)

His sketch was nearly done here. He pointed out that in this type of sketch, he doesn't bother with trying to convey human proportions, as it's just an initial concept. In fact, he kept referring to her as an "alien" to prevent viewers, I suppose, from thinking this could be an actual model.

What’s that Cream doing in his palette? He said he likes to use off-white on black paper – but then didn’t demo that (Booo – I really wanted to see that!). He also uses Cream for his initial contour drawing (which I thought was the weakest part of the demo, since Cream on white paper is basically invisible on video).

Using the same reference photo of Jaxon, the pup I sketched with a brush pen last week, I used Germanier’s palette and tried to apply his principles. Since I rarely use neon or metallic pencils, his colors are fun to use, and his approach to blending them is a brain shaker-upper.

12/25/25 Caran d'Ache + Germanier Colour set in Bee mixed media sketchbook

In fact, I started thinking . . . what if I pulled a palette of my own unexpected, unrealistic hues and tried them while urban sketching? Not necessarily metallic or neon, but simply colors that I wouldn’t consider using in an urban landscape. It would be similar to phases I’ve gone through of sketching with only red/blue or only a secondary triad, but I’d have to get crazier than that. Hmmm . . . intriguing to consider.

Chilly: Caran d’Ache Alpine Frost Bicolors

 

Chilly!

Multi-colored lights? Decorated cookies? Greeting cards exchanged with friends? What’s the holiday thing you look forward to most? Me? It’s the Caran d’Ache winter-themed bicolors set, of course!

Caran d’Ache has thrown me for a loop at least a couple of times with this limited-edition series. The most exciting release was certainly the first one in 2019, which fulfilled a long-standing wish for bicolor pencils with water-soluble cores – it seemed an ideal, compact solution for urban sketching. Although it wasn’t winter-themed, its release right before the holidays made it obvious that it was intended as a gifty item.

Two years later, Cd’A released the Wonder Forest set, again, just in time for the holidays and clearly winter themed. This set remains my favorite of the series, both for its bright red tin and the selection of colors included. Its release set off new expectations: Now that there were two such sets, would there be more? Would a new one each holiday season be too much to hope for?

No, it would not! Only one year later, the gold-tinned Color Treasure set was released. Now things were really getting exciting: Surely we could reasonably expect another set the following holiday season!

Sadly, the 2023 holiday season came and went, with no bicolors to be seen. Last year, however, brought a different surprise – and not a good one. In August, timed for back-to-school, it seems, the Claim Your Style set appeared – not in a tin to match its predecessors but in a flimsy cardboard box.

I had hoped that was an anomaly and that this winter would bring us a nice tin again. Alas, those days seem to be over. Caran d’Ache’s 2025 holiday theme, Alpine Frost, is an attractive, albeit seasonably chilly, collection of gifty items again. Of course, I was thrilled to see that the collection included a bicolors set – but contained in cardboard again.

Cardboard box

Slide-out drawer reveals the bicolor pencils (a second layer is concealed below the first).

Compared to last year’s flimsy back-to-school edition, Alpine Frost’s box is sturdier, and the slide-out drawer gives it a nice presentation. Still, as a limited-edition “collectible,” a metal tin like the previous silver, red and gold editions would have expressed quality, lasting durability, and the esthetics of a cohesive series – a series that would inspire completionism and FOMO! For heaven’s sake, Cd’A marketing people: Are you all asleep? (Yes, I used to work in marketing; so shoot me.)

The set includes nine bicolor pencils (18 colors) and a small brush.

The other quality that’s lost with cardboard is the implied travel potential. Say you have a friend who has sighed longingly with the desire to be a travel sketcher “someday.” If you gave them a sturdy, metal tin filled with a compact set of water-soluble pencils, you are telling them that you believe in their dream. The set encourages being popped impulsively into a bag for the next weekend getaway. Cardboard? Hmmm, its corners might get munched in a backpack, or it might not recover from a drop in wet sand.

As usual with the bicolors, no color numbers or names are indicated on the barrels.

My much greater quibble, however, is with Alpine Frost’s color selection. First, I’ll acknowledge that it’s a delicate, visually appealing palette for a winter-themed set. The barrels look beautiful together – if the pencils were tableware for a casual holiday open house serving eggnog and bite-sized Costco quiches. But as my swatches below will show, half the colors are too pale to use in a water-dissolved state; they become invisible washes. All the previous sets included enough of a color range that each could possibly stand alone for casual sketching. Not so for Alpine Frost (another reason it’s not a practical gift for that travel sketcher wannabe). These tints leave me cold, and most of the other colors have already appeared in previous bicolors sets.

Swatches made in Hahnamuhle student-grade watercolor sketchbook. A small dot below the color number indicates that it's the color's first appearance in bicolor form.

Although I typically don’t swatch water-soluble colored pencils on black paper because I know their washed states will mostly disappear, a reader requested it, so I made swatches below. For geeky kicks, I included swatches of white in Supracolor and Museum Aquarelle, too. The water-soluble cores in Caran d’Ache bicolors are the same as Prismalo; these swatches show the relative opacity of the three Caran d’Ache pencil lines.

Swatches made in Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook

By the way, you may be wondering how acquisition of this set fits in with my commitment to downsizing. When I began the process last year, I considered carefully how to manage all my pencil collections and micro-collections. For example, within the vast category of vintage colored pencils, I was fairly indiscriminate early on (as many collectors are when they begin), specialized later, and eventually pared down to the micro-collections I most enjoy.

I gave the same thought to my various collections of contemporary products that were limited in production or otherwise “special.” FOMO can be a powerful driver, and I know I’m susceptible to it, regardless of my downsizing status. I try to be vigilant by asking myself before every purchase: Will this really bring me joy? Or am I on FOMO autopilot?

The Caran d’Ache bicolors sets used to bring me great joy, both in terms of my lifelong fondness for bicolors and their potential for urban sketching. But after two years of disappointments, this might be the last I buy.

The holidays are the right time for a family portrait.