OUR EXPERTISE

Our passion for colour expressed through colour pencils, graphite pencils, pastels and gouache has only grown over the last hundred years, providing the utmost enjoyment for young and old, budding artists and professionals the world over.

With more than 400 shades developed from a hundred pigments to ensure the utmost purity of our colours, the treasure at the end of the Caran d'Ache rainbow is first and foremost the product of a coming-together – a coming-together of the materials and expertise of our craftspeople, and also a coming-together of science, passion and creativity.

It is a subtle balance that allows us to devise and produce the very best drawing and writing instruments so that everyone can express themselves freely.

Did you know that it takes around 50 hours of work spread over 35 stages to manufacture a single pencil? Did you know that in our workshops many of the tasks, including cutting the leads to size, are done by hand?

To discover the depth of our expertise, why not step into the shoes of our craftspeople and uncover the intricacies of their craft.

Caran d'Ache creates Haute Écriture instruments that are the product of age-old expertise. Many areas of our manufacturing are based on some of the oldest ancestral traditions, with our craftspeople mastering the arts of polishing, guilloché, lacquering and engraving.

The precision of each act, the mastery of the techniques and the knowledge of the materials makes each item that leaves our workshops truly exceptional.

Featuring limited editions with visionary lines, fountain pens, mechanical pencils and pens sculpted out of the finest of materials, Caran d'Ache's luxury collections are an expression of the extensive talents of our master craftspeople – talents that transform the art of writing into a daily pleasure.

Did you know that it took Caran d'Ache seven years to develop its Chinese lacquer formula? Or that it takes five years to master the lacquer technique? Or that our Haute Écriture instruments are all assembled by hand?

Discover the exceptional talents of our craftspeople and get to the heart of what they do.