"What's all the fuss about Prismacolor?"  Well now you can "try them and find out!" They are now becoming more available in the UK as sets and as single pencil open stock, there are some great UK based sellers, myself included who stock Prismacolor Pencils, Art Stix and Nupastels. If you have never heard of Art Stix let me tell you a little about them. Art Stix are a fairly new member to the Prismacolor family, they are as convinent as pastels but without the mess but thay can also be used in the same way you would use coloured pencil, they can be sharpened for detailed work or used to cover large area. Made from the same as Prismacolor pencils they blend and work in the same way and the colour palette is a match for Prismacolor's pencil range so the two can be used well together.

Prismacolor Art Stix are available in sets or as singles and come in a range of 48 lovely colours

Prismacolor pencils come in a range of 132 lovely colours plus a range of metallics and if you are very lucky you may even find some of the lovely colours they chose to discontinue, Neon red Yellow and Green, and all the lovely deco colours.

Prismacolor pencils are highly praised by fine artisits, card makers, crafters and scrapbookers due to their soft, but not crumbly, leads, their ability to blend with each other or by using a spirit blenders such as Sansador. Prismacolor pencils are also acid free so great for memory books and have good lightfastness (ask me about this if you need to know lightfast ratings for individual colours)

They are also wax based not oil based like a lot of coloured pencils.

They are the same as Karisma, now a discontinued brand, they have the same colour numbers alhough some of the names have changed slightly, Prismacolor names-Karisma names

• 904 Light Cerulean Blue - Light Blue
  913 Spring Green - Green Bice
  917 Sunburst yellow - Yellow Orange (not to be confused with 1002 Yellowed Orange)
  919 Non photo blue - Sky Blue
  921 Light vermillion - Vermillion
  922 Poppy red - Scarlet Red
  927 Pale Peach - Light Peach
  928 Blush pink - Blush
  931 Dark Purple - Purple
  933 Blue Violet - Violet blue
  941 Light Umber - Raw Umber
  944 Terra Cotta - Terracotta
  947 Dark Umber - Burnt umber
  949 Metallic silver - Silver
  950 Metallic Gold - Gold
  956 Lilac - Violet
  995 Mulberry - Bright Purple
  996 Black grape - Grape
  

There is a Prismacolor 'Marine Green' which was in Karisma early sets but discontinued I will publish a full list of Karisma/Prismacolor colour name changes as soon as I have finish researching it. There are also a lot of new colours,Chestnut, Denim Blue China Blue, Sandbar brown to name a few

 Prismacolor range is 132 colours and Karisma was 108. I will admit that Karisma pencils are more stylish looking but the bit that counts, the middle, is the same. I do understand as an artist how much you like Karisma though and won't try to convert you (go on give 'um a try)

Artists' quality coloured pencils for every level of expertise

Also now easily available in the UK and from the Prismacolor family, Art Stix (woodless colour pencils) Nupastel and soft pastels and water soluble graphite pencils.

NEW in the UK

*Prismacolor Nupastel* Firmer, cleaner all round sexier!