On Location at Cretacolor - Jackson's Artwork Weblog

Our On Location sequence reveals the place a few of the best-loved artwork supplies are made, and supplies perception into the working strategies of the individuals who make them. This time, we travelled to Austria to go to the Cretacolor pencil factories, the place devoted employees craft a variety of artists’ pencils, charcoals and pastels, from their traditional Nice Artwork pencil vary and versatile Aqua Monolith assortment to their richly pigmented Karmina color pencil units.

The Origins of the Cretacolor Firm

Cretacolor’s roots stretch again to 1790, when one of many earliest graphite pencils was developed in Vienna, and pencil manufacturing started within the metropolis. In 1863, Carl Brevillier based the Zeus pencil manufacturing unit, with the purpose of constructing drawing and writing instruments extra accessible. Manufacturing later moved to Hirm, the place Hans Wolfgang Hromatka acquired the premises in 1996 and developed it right into a specialist producer of artists’ supplies. In 2007, he merged Cretacolor with Brevillier to create Brevillier City & Sachs, now dwelling to Cretacolor and the kids’s artwork materials vary, Jolly. At this time, Cretacolor is understood for its artists’ pencils and specialised dry media, combining heritage, craftsmanship, and a deep ardour for artwork supplies.

New Cretacolor Facility in Hornstein

Alongside the Hirm manufacturing unit, Cretacolor have a brand-new facility in Hornstein, a couple of miles away. This options a big manufacturing flooring with state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, a media and academic area with a luxurious auditorium for displays, and administrative places of work that work in tandem with the corporate’s HQ in close by Vienna.

Manufacturing on the Hirm Manufacturing unit

Cretacolor’s primary manufacturing takes place on the outskirts of Hirm, a quaint village with traditional Austrian-style structure the place storks nest on chimneys and rooftops. It’s near Neusiedler See, a big lake straddling the Hungarian border that by no means reaches greater than two metres deep, making it fashionable with holidaymakers, birdwatchers, and sightseers.

The Color Begins Right here

The making of Cretacolor pencils begins with the preparation of the pigments, the vast majority of that are sourced from Austria and Germany, in addition to internationally. The very first thing you see as you enter the manufacturing constructing is a large financial institution of cabinets the place pigments are saved in giant containers.

For every pigment combine, the required containers are chosen and brought to a devoted room, the place actual portions are rigorously weighed based on the batch worksheet and combined for round 20 minutes.

Pigment Mixing

The ready pigment is then transferred to giant industrial machines that shake and churn the dry pigment earlier than water and wax are added. The combination is then blended and kneaded at round 115°C for seven to 9 hours till it reaches the best consistency, with common checks for moisture and pigment composition all through.

Graphite and Charcoal are primarily created from pigment, binders, and water, whereas Colored Pencils and sticks, together with Pastels and Arduous Pastels, additionally include fillers, waxes, and different components. Every formulation is rigorously adjusted to realize the specified dealing with and efficiency.

Extruding the Combine Into Cores

The color combination is now able to be shaped into a color core. It’s transferred by way of a drum and loaded by hand into an Extruder machine, the place a vacuum system removes air pockets because the combination is poured in. The machine makes use of stress and warmth to extrude the color into the specified lead diameter, with stress gauges used to set and monitor the method. The dies are heated to round 30°C to assist the combination go by way of easily. Completely different strains have totally different lead widths, and the machine has interchangeable dies to supply a specific diameter.

The freshly shaped cores then run alongside a conveyor belt to an endpoint the place a employees member dusts them with talcum powder. It is because they’re nonetheless scorching and the powder prevents them from sticking collectively. The cores are additionally monitored at this stage, and any defective ones are collected and despatched by way of the machine once more, which avoids pointless waste.

For merchandise that don’t require a wooden casing, such because the Monolith and 5.6mm Lead vary for clutch pencils, a special Extruder machine is used. This performs in the identical approach however has a built-in, interchangeable stamper which embosses the cores with the Cretacolor emblem, product code, and hardness grade. On this case, the Extruder delivers the leads in lengthy steady lengths with small incisions. These incisions point out the place they need to be totally reduce as soon as cured and strong sufficient for reducing.

All leads are transferred to spherical cans that are lined up alongside banks of cabinets, the place they’re slowly cooled.

The Furnace Room

Within the case of graphite-based merchandise akin to Cretacolor’s Nice Artwork pencils, the leads are fired at temperatures of as much as 900°C for round one hour. The furnace then stays closed for about 48 hours whereas it cools, earlier than the leads are eliminated and left to chill additional. In whole, the cooling course of takes round 60 hours.

The Wax Room

The lead cores in merchandise akin to Marino Watercolour Pencils and oil-based Nero Pencils have to be handled within the waxing space. They’re left to marinate in an oil combination that helps create their distinctive character and efficiency. The answer accommodates totally different ranges of wax and oil relying on the product, and the leads can stay within the combination for round 24 hours.

Graphite, oily artist pencils and sticks, and colored pencils all go by way of this course of, whereas charcoal, dry artist pencils and sticks, pastels, and onerous pastels don’t. The leads are loaded into perforated containers and positioned in vats earlier than a Centrifuge machine is used to spin off any extra oil.

The ‘Sandwich’ Part

That is the place the leads requiring a wooden casing are ready. Cretacolor use basswood, also called lime or linden, for his or her artists’ pencils not solely as a result of it’s light-weight but in addition for its straight grain, permitting for easy, simple sharpening. Basswood slats are stacked right into a Chopping Machine, which creates the grooves the place glue is utilized. The machine feeds the leads into these grooves, and the slats are then restacked onto a wheel-shaped contraption that distributes agency, even stress because it slowly turns.

After about six hours, the slats are able to be reduce into both the spherical or hexagonal design that every vary requires. Employees monitor the freshly shaped pencils as they depart the machine that separates and shapes them. As the gathering trays refill, the employees wrap them in brown paper to maintain them in contained batches for transporting to the Hornstein manufacturing unit.

Hornstein is a brief distance from Hirm. The manufacturing unit has an unlimited, open flooring with areas for lacquering, stamping, sharpening, and packing. The manufacturing unit additionally boasts a brand new machine for dealing with picket slats at the next capability.

When the freshly reduce pencils arrive, they now require lacquering. The pencils require as much as eight coats of lacquer, with gentle colors needing extra. The lacquer is a troublesome, watersoluble formulation free from dangerous fumes. The pencils are loaded onto, and run alongside, a conveyor belt, passing by way of a spherical or hexagonal-shaped ring. Above, a pot feeds the color combine into the ring, which applies the paint evenly across the barrel as they go by way of. The lengthy conveyor belt has overhead heaters to dry the lacquer as they run alongside it. They go round once more till the pencils are prepared for the following stage.

Finish-tip Dipping, Stamping, and Sharpening

If the pencils require colored end-tips, an oil-based lacquer is utilized. Pencils are suspended in dipping racks loaded onto a harness, which is slowly lowered by hand right into a vat of pre-mixed color. The individual tasked with this units the harness to decrease to a sure peak for every strip of color that the pencils require.

As soon as the pencils are totally cured, they’re stamped with their barcode, sequence quantity, hardness grade, and the Cretacolour emblem. Pencils are fed by way of a machine that concurrently stamps the metallic foil and sharpens the information on the identical time. The motion may be very fast; because the machine stamps, a rotating sander shapes the information.

Packing

As with the opposite machines at Hornstein, the packing gear is state-of-the-art and may kind assorted colors on the press of a button. Every color is loaded into separate overhead containers earlier than being fed by way of a machine and into tins, that are then checked and sealed. Relying on the product, packaging will be carried out manually, semi-automatically, or totally robotically. Completed merchandise are then saved in Hirm earlier than being distributed worldwide.

The Cretacolor Model

Cretacolor’s robust heritage, sense of custom, and meticulous craftsmanship are central to the model. That is mirrored of their expertly made artwork supplies and openness to progressive know-how. With a dedication to preserving the corporate primarily based in Austria, Cretacolor employs greater than 100 employees from the native space and neighbouring Hungary, lots of whom keep for a few years, with some remaining till retirement.

Cretacolor can also be dedicated to decreasing its environmental affect, with 60% of its power coming from hydroelectric and wind energy. The corporate recycles as a lot uncooked materials as doable, together with reusing wooden waste from pencil manufacturing to supply warmth and power for the manufacturing unit.

Schooling and group engagement are an necessary a part of the corporate’s work. Cretacolor hosts occasions for colleges and clients in its auditorium at Hornstein, organises artwork workshops with the area people, and likewise runs workshops internationally in partnership with its distribution community.