When I was studying at uni, for some reason it was requested/suggested that I have amongst my supplies a blue lead mechanical pencil. By mechanical pencil I mean those ones that you click and the lead pushes up through the middle. Because the lead is fine, you don’t get thick, heavy lines, and nor do you need to sharpen it.
The blue lead was for a very particular reason, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. I can’t even remember which class/subject it was for. (Ah, the joys of having had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome!)
However, yesterday as I was working on my latest Portuguese whitework project – which I am loving 🙂 – I remembered this pencil. Actually I remembered the lead first of all, and wondered if it might be useful for drawing the design on the fabric. It seemed to me that if the lead colour was a mid blue, there was going to be little chance of going too dark as there often is a danger with regular pencil lead. So I searched through my drawers, and while I didn’t find the lead (I’m sure its there somewhere!) I found the pencil, replete with some lead already in it.
I tried it out on a portion of the design and it works well. You CAN’T draw too heavily because the colour is only a mid blue so it never gets as dark as regular lead, and because it is whitework, the blue blends nicely even if some of it does end up showing through. Whether it will wash out, I have no idea yet, but that’s not really an issue with this project as it will all be covered over.
So maybe this is an idea you might be able to try. Having not bought this lead for about 20 years, I have no idea if its still available, but my guess is that an art shop would be the place to try.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
The blue is called non-photo blue, and it’s used most of the time because it doesn’t reproduce on a scanner. I use it all the time in drawings–draw something in blue, ink it, & scan it. The blue lines never show up in the scan, and I never have to erase.
Fons & Porter has a lead pencil just for marking – it has two colors of lead – one for light colored fabric and one for dark colored fabric – it is water soluble. you can find them on their website Fons&Porter.com
I use the pencils for marking and its works great.
Veronica
Thank you Heather. That would make sense, as I was doing graphic design at uni.
Hi Veronica, I just checked them out. And for anyone else who’s interested, here’s the link to the white one:
https://www.shopfonsandporter.com/product/Mechanical-Pencil-W-Refill-White/fabric-and-notions
They look pretty good. The thing I am particularly liking about my blue lead is that it is blue. However, I can definitely see a use for white lead in other circumstances ie when I’m not working on white fabric!