Is there something special about the LYRA pencils? - Page 2

[dogretro]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

My DD wishes she had a gray and black as well. The only place I've seen those offered is in the "supplemental" set at Hip Mountain Mama's site.

Waldorf Supplies has black Lyra pencils available to purchase as singles, as well as Stone crayons and Stockmar in black. I did see that there are no blacks or grays in the Lyra pencil set, but in the box right below the set you can choose single pencils and there are both gray and black: http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/cgi-s...and_Pens&xm=on The Lyra crayons are also only available in black as singles. You need to scroll down a bit: http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/cgi-s...roduct=Crayons

Hope that helps!!!

[mangopassion]

Another for the Lyra pencils! I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but ours have never broken. Our other pencils will always break, but our Lyras always stay intact. Get thyself some! You will not regret it!

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

As I recall, the narrower ones are quite similar to one another - whereas the big fat ones or Ferbies have more of a softer, waxy texture. Funny - just now I tried googling "wax content of lyra pencils" and this thread is what came up first. Lillian

Interesting! I wonder if the content is high enough that you can melt a finished drawing? Anyone tried that?

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by theretohere

Interesting! I wonder if the content is high enough that you can melt a finished drawing? Anyone tried that?

Oh, dear - I guess the word "waxy" might be very misleading - I didn't mean so waxy that they're in the least meltable. It's hard to describe - but they're just more soft and waxy than you'd ordinarily expect a pencil to be, but not so waxy that you'd ever look at them and think of wax. - Lillian

[Lillian J]

This might help. On this page, scroll way down the page and look at the illustrations underneath the 1st grade one done in beeswax crayons, and you'll see two illustrations done by grade 5 and grade 8 Waldorf student drawings in the Lyra pencils. Lillian

[Madame Pomfrey]

We used the Little Lyra Ferbies first and they were just awesome. The following year we got regular Ferbies and the following year we got the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolors. My son loved them all. The Aquacolors are in the cards for Spring.

To me the choice is developmental: start with the short, fat, then the taller fat ones, then the thinner ones. They reflect the growing sense of detail in the child's drawings. If a child ASKED for a sharper point I would give it to them. I usually kept some sharper Crayola or RoseArt pencils around the house in case they wanted to add a detail. Those big RoseArt sets (with pencils, pastels, crayons, and paints) make a nice supplement to your standard Waldorf supplies, plus they cost next to nothing.

Warm regards,

Lucie

[sophi4ka]

So I bought the little Ferby set of 12 pencils today. Hurray! Thank you all for your responses.

[sahmmie]

Just wondering..... do these LYRA pencils sharpen nicely? I have endless trouble trying to sharpen my ds's crayola colored pencils. I end up throwing them away because they can't be sharpened. Argghhh!

What size and type LYRA's would you recommended starting with? (I'm looking for narrow sized colored pencils).

Where the best place (cheapest) to buy them?

Thanks!