PENCIL
ca: LLAPIS
es: LÁPIZ
1) Pencil is a slender tube of wood containing a thin center of lead or a coloring material and is used for writing and drawing.
2) Ceramic pencils look like ordinary colored pencils but they are prepared in a special way to draw on bisque or a glazed surface. When the design is finished, it has to be covered by transparent glaze and the clear colors can be fired at between 720º C and 980º C and the strong, darker colors, black, blue, green and brown to 1250º C.
Pencils are made in many different ways, depending what you want to use them for drawing or writing, for colors, charcoal and lead pencils, etc., this part is known as the core and is made with a protective cover, usually wood to prevent it from breaking and dirtying your hands when being used. Lead pencils are still known by this name, but are now made with different products because lead is poisonous, The cores are made in different strengths, from a very fine hard one to a large soft one and each is graded and marked. The lead wears down with continued use and has to be sharpened by cutting or peeling down the cover.
PENCILS – Making them last longer.
These photos were taken in a school for ceramics and at the end of the day one off the student had the job of looking after the pencils. They all had to be sharpened left the right way up in the bowl and if needed made longer. To do this a plastic tube, cut to the right length, wide enough so that when the pencil is pushed into it, it fits tightly and can be used again.
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