The Cretacolor Ergonomic is a 5.6mm leadholder with an unusual grip section. The barrel has a zig-zag section which is claimed to be ergonomic. Artists have long applied tape and padding to make leadholders more ‘holdable’, and this instrument attempts to anticipate that challenge.
The ideal grip is obviously a highly personal choice, and the Ergonomic is worth mentioning for those on a quest to find that grip. (I’ve found the Ergonomic good, but not quite right for me, while others love it.)
What can you do with it? It can use a huge range of graphite, compressed charcoal, wax colour leads, sanguine and sepia leads, chalk, or even a ballpoint adapter. Here is a nice Cretacolor lead set I found. Unfortunately, I broke a lead on the way home:
I have had one of these in my collection for a while now, and I guess its ergonomic grip doesn’t really suit me since I seldom use it. The non-graphite Cretacolor 5.6 mm leads tend to be rather brittle, for several in my mixed leads set also arrived in pieces.
The leads in the photo were a local purchase, so this time I can’t “blame” the post office or a courier. :-)
There are also eraser and “drylighter” leads for 5.6mm leadholders:
http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=category=8-221|level=2-3|pageid=165
http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=8-911|Level=2-3|PageID=6460
I wasn’t too thrilled with the hilighters (as usual for dry highlighters, they’re a bit light on the pigment and one line rarely gets an ideal result), but an eraser “lead” now lives full time in my pocket pen case in a standard triangular Cretacolor leadholder. Very, very handy.
Didn’t know about the erasers, thanks for the tip!
I got this as a gift. I can’t figure out how to load the pencils. Can you help me?
suzannah,
Well just push the button at one extrem of the barrel an while the jaws are full open in the other side introduce the lead.
That’s all