Today 30 March is Pencil Day so designated because on this day in 1858, Hymen Lipman received the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. His pencil featured graphite for three-fourths of the pencil and natural rubber in the other fourth. Sharpen one end for the pencil and the other for the eraser.

I have always loved pencils and will even admit pouring over the pencil grading or HB scale. The letter “H” indicates the hardness and  the letter “B” indicated the blackness of the pencil’s mark. The letter “F” indicates that the pencil sharpens to a fine point. Pencils using the HB system are designated by a number to indicate the degree of hardness, so a 5B would be softer than a 2B and a 3H harder than an H.

The site pencil.com is the source of many many pencil facts. Before the invention of erasers, writers and artists used bread crumbs to erase mistakes. Pencils can write in zero gravity, and were used on space missions by American and Russian astronauts. They can also write under water!  It is said that the average pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, although this has never been tested.

I had a bit of a think about how my pencil wrap might look. Without going too mastercheffie, I wanted to make the pencils the hero of the wrap. So I opted to wrap a little posey with yummy florals,  spotty coloured pencils and a spotty paper.  I fought my inner symmetry and clustered the coloured pencils to the side. I’m quite liking this look for a quirky gift – specially for someone who is into colouring books.