Table talk
How 4-in-1 rainbow pencils work
What is inside the core, three ways to hold the pencil, and five things to draw first.
The short version
- The core holds red, yellow, blue and green side by side.
- Turning the pencil changes which color touches the paper.
- A low angle lays down several colors at once.
What is inside
Cut a rainbow pencil in half and the lead looks like a pie sliced into four. Each slice is a different pigment. Nothing mixes inside the pencil: the mixing happens on the page, where neighboring colors overlap at the edges.
ThEast makes the core a little wider than a typical colored pencil lead so each of the four wedges is thick enough to draw on its own.
Three ways to hold it
Upright, on the point: one color at a time, and a quarter turn switches to the next. Tilted, on the shoulder of the lead: two colors travel together, like a train track. Almost flat: three or four colors make a ribbon, perfect for rainbows, hair and fish scales.
Children find the first two by accident within a minute. The third usually needs a demonstration, and then they do not stop.
Five things to draw first
A snail shell, turning the pencil as the spiral grows. Their own name in bubble letters. A parrot. A long striped scarf that goes off the edge of the page. Fireworks, drawn as short flicks outward from one point.
For a party table, give each child one pencil and a strip of paper and ask for the longest snake that changes color the most times.
Looking after them
Sharpen little and often. A soft core needs only a short point, and over-sharpening wastes the color. If a tip snaps, check that pencils are not being stored point-down in a hard cup: a folded paper towel in the bottom fixes that.
