Art Smarts

Snapshot
S
pr
r
u
ncil
A single peabout
can write
45,000
n
isi
ac
f
g
bo
a
s
t
or draw a
our
y
t
u
It would
take
about half
an hour to
drive that
far on a
. highway.
m
6mk
5
line
(35 i.)
lies.
p
p
u
s
a rt
PENCIL
DECODER
on
What do the letters
pencils mean?
H=Hard (leaves a
lighter mark)
B=Black (a softer,
darker pencil)
HB=Hard Black
(medium hard)
Artist Sujit Das made the world’s largest
paintbrush, in Nagaon, India. He used
the super-long brush, which measured
(28 ft.)
8.5
m
and weighed 22 kg (49 lbs.),
to paint portraits of famous people. Imagine
painting with a brush that's almost as long as
two canoes and weighs as much as a bulldog!
What’s the
Word?
Ferrule: Th
e metal ban
d that hold
a pencil’s e
s
raser.
Graphite: T
he “lead” (w
hich
contains no
actual lead
) in pencils
Plug: The e
.
raser on th
e end of a
pencil.
Paintbrushes come in almost
any shape you can dream up,
including “mop” (large and
soft), “rigger” (extra-long
hairs), and “fan” (hairs in a
fan-shape).
s
flakes of
y
d
s
n
r
e
e
t
o
f
w l marks are made o fibres in paper. You cearn.
e
t
Penci
nder wa
tick to th
u
s
d
h
c
n
i
a
h
e
w
c
,
spa
graphite
encils in
p
h
t
i
w
e
t
even wri
Paper can be recycled
The world’s largest crayon,
named Big Blue, weighs in at
680
kg
(1,500 lbs.)
14
OWL March 2016
The average
kid uses
720
crayons
by the time he or
she turns 10.
TEXT: KATHERINE DEARLOVE PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CRAYOLA (GIRL);
ALL OTHER PHOTOS ISTOCKPHOTO.COM AND DREAMSTIME
and is 4.6 m (15 ft.) long.
Kids sent hundreds of thousands
of worn-down blue crayons to
Crayola so it could make the
gigantic crayon.
Kids in the U.S. and
parts of Canada can send
used markers to Crayola for
recycling. The markers can
be used to generate clean
fuel and electricity, and the
recycling program keeps
plastic out of landfills.
See more at
owlkids.com/markers.
6 to 8
Petra Engels of Germany has
19,571
erasers, the largest collection in the
world. She started collecting erasers
in 1981, when she was nine.
Many erasers, especially
the pink ones, contain
volcanic ash to make them
more gritty. The grit makes
the erasers rub better.
y’s erasers
Before toda
d in the late
were invente
1700s
,
d balls of
people use
crumbs
moist bread
eir pencil
to rub out th nately,
rtu
marks. Unfo
my” erasers
m
ru
these “c
y.
went mould
sometimes
times
before the wood fibres
break down and become
too small to survive
the recycling process.
Recycling 1,000 kg
(2,200 lbs.) of
paper saves
about 17
trees.
owlkids.com
15