Multicoloured Instruments

I've owned multi-coloured pens and pencils and crayons before.

I was surprised how fun it was to play with a multi-coloured twistable the other day.  That's probably bias on my part- I never actually got what the big fuss about Twistables were, having not been particularly impressed. 

And my boyfriend went to a museum in Japan where he bought these beautiful crayons, which I keep preciously in a box and have not yet tried. 

You can make your own multi-coloured crayons with baking moulds.  These are very popular party favours.

Wait until they have cooled before removing from the mould, or they will be too soft and lose their shape.

Sometimes I feel like I haven't had a childhood- I didn't have access to super-awesome Lego moulds..

I shouldn't say that. When I was a kid, I had one of these without the pencil grip.

I remember they were pretty to carry around in my travel art pack or pencil case, but they weren't a huge part of my childhood memories.  They couldn't be sharpened.  They didn't last long.  When the lead got dull, there was no more use of that colour.  I think I preferred the small packs of short colour pencils instead. 

I have one of these too, bought from Singapore.

They are old school.  I've seen Japanese ads for them from (?) 1960's. 

Really easy concept: The coloured leads are stored in the transparent pen body.  Pop the colour of the lead you want to use into the nib. 
I don't have good things to say.  I found them really fiddly to change coloured lead.  My cap broke at the end, breaking the special gold coloured lead along with it.

I paid what I thought was quite a lot for a Pentel multicoloured mechanical pencil a few years ago. I decided that I had to buy spare lead refills too because they were a unique thickness. They are popular with Bible students because they can highlight words without bleeding through thin Bible paper.  I waited excited for their arrival by post. I have not used them ONCE.  

Why Twistables?

Twistables.  

I remember thinking this was kind of a cool concept when they came out.  And I definitely wanted to own some.  I got some and wasn't so impressed.  Now they are everywhere.  de rigour.  Why? Aside from the novelty of twisting them?

Here are a few reasons they beat regular crayons: 
No sharpening
Don't break as easily as stick crayons, aren't so fragile
Good for environment if no wax/wood shavings?
Doesn't dirty little hands?
Maintain their length, so you don't end up with tiny knubs.

Disadvantages:
They are more expensive. 
They do generate more plastic waste. 
They're just student-grade crayons and disappoint if you want deep saturated colour.

I'm probably a bit harsh.  I don't even use normal crayons regularly, so why would I find a use for twistables? I bought a set of fluorescent ones, telling myself I would use them as highlighters.  I have barely touched them. 

I don't like the waxy texture.  

The blunt nib was think and I felt clumy writing with them.

I tried drawing with them.  They could not be scanned easily because they were so light. They were pretty cool as resists for watercolour painting.

Cool things to do with crayons: 

-Melt them in chocolate moulds for funnky shapes (lego men! hearts! robots!)

-Melt them into multi-coloured crayons

-Carve them

-Use as coloured wax seals