Starter Kit. Idea 63 of 500. Cluster 3
Graphite pencils and artists' sets made from Sri Lankan vein graphite, the purest on earth
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Source a small quantity of vein graphite and ask a woodworker to case a dozen hand-made pencils as a sample. Send three pencils each to artists and art teachers in Colombo and abroad, and ask them to draw with them and name a price for a set. Three artists naming a price, or one art shop asking to stock, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Artists and art shops who value pure graphite and a clear origin, and will pay a premium for a proper set.
- What leaves today
- The purest graphite on earth leaves as raw mineral; a pencil set sells it as a finished, named product.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which markets buy premium art materials and what help exists for small makers.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what safety standard pencils and art sets for children should meet.
Check before you spend
Where vein graphite can be bought in small amounts, who can make it into pencil cores, and what safety rules apply to children's art sets.
Find out these three numbers
- What do artists abroad pay for premium graphite pencils?
- Who on the island can turn graphite into pencil cores?
- What does a first batch of boxed sets cost?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka. Introduction
"Sri Lankan vein graphite comes out of the ground at about 95% carbon, the purest natural graphite anywhere on the planet"
The purest graphite on the planet is a story worth putting on the box.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.