Colouring-in craze causes pencil shortages
The craze for adult colouring-in has pencil factories working overtime to meet demand
By Senay Boztas and Colin Freeman
Different colours of pencil Photo: Alamy
A Scottish illustrator has been credited with boosting the fortunes of the global pencil industry after the surprise success of her “colouring-in” books for grown ups.
Johanna Basford’s books of elaborately-crafted fill-in drawings have tapped into a huge demand from those seeking to switch off from I-pads, laptops and computer games.
Now, having already topped the Amazon best-seller lists, her tomes are also giving a massive boost in global sales for high-quality pencils, as colouring-in fans compete to make masterpieces of their work.
Far from being a casualty themselves of the digital age, pencil manufacturers are now struggling to cope with demand, with Faber Castell, the world’s largest wood pencil manufacturer, revealing last week that it was now having to run extra shifts at its factories.