The discovery of a large graphite deposit in Borrowdale, Cumbria in 1565 led directly to the invention of the pencil — local shepherds found graphite useful for marking sheep, and someone had the idea of encasing it in wood for a writing instrument. The pencil industry that followed transformed writing, drawing, and design. Every pencil mark ever made is a graphite mark — connecting contemporary drawing directly to a geological deposit in northern England.

Metallic, precise, and intellectually associated. Graphite is the colour of technical drawing, of precise thought made visible, of the interface between hand and mind. Its slight metallic quality distinguishes it from flat greys — it carries the sense of a material that can be both tool and colour simultaneously. Associated with planning, precision, and the particular intimacy of pencil work.

The pencil — essentially a graphite applicator — is perhaps the most democratic art tool ever invented. Every child learns to draw with a pencil; every architect designs with one. The Borrowdale graphite deposit that made this possible was so valuable it was guarded by armed soldiers and only mined for six weeks per year in the 17th century. When the deposit was exhausted, the industry developed ways of making pencils from graphite powder compressed with clay — a technology still used today.