If there is a top shelf in coloured pencils, this is sitting on it. All 100 Luminance colours plus 12 extras, in a light oak case with a natural varnish, a gold lock and four removable trays with leather straps to lift them out. It weighs nearly three kilos. It is not a box of pencils, it is a piece of furniture for your creative life.

What Is Inside the Oak Case

Inside are all 100 Luminance colours, plus 9 duplicates of the colours artists use most, 2 pencil blenders and a Full Blender, laid across four removable trays of 28 with leather pulls. There is even a blank two page colour chart with the 100 colours in chromatic order, ready for you to swatch.

The case is light oak with a natural varnish, a gold coloured lock and the Caran d'Ache logo on the lid, made in Geneva. It measures about 39.5 x 23.8 x 8.5cm. Eighty one of the 100 colours are rated LFI under ASTM D-6901, the rest LFII.

The Caran d'Ache Difference: Swiss Made Since 1915

Caran d'Ache has made drawing tools in Geneva for more than a century, and they still make them the slow way, in their own Swiss workshops at Thônex just outside the city. Not outsourced, not rebadged, not made wherever is cheapest this year. Every Luminance pencil is designed and made in Switzerland, from the pigment-rich lead to the FSC certified cedar that wraps it.

It is still a family company too. The Hübscher family has led Caran d'Ache since the 1930s, and today Carole Hübscher runs it as the fourth generation. That continuity is why the quality does not wobble from batch to batch. The Luminance pencil you buy this year lays down exactly like the one you bought five years ago, which matters when you are matching colours across a body of work.

This is the company that launched Prismalo in 1931, the world's first watercolour pencil, so coloured pencils are not a side line for them, they are the whole point. Luminance is their flagship, the pencil they put their name to for professional, archival work. We have stocked Caran d'Ache at Art Shed Brisbane for years, and Luminance is the pencil our coloured pencil artists save up for.

Why Professional Artists Choose Luminance

• Lightfastness you can prove. Made to ASTM D-6901 with every colour rated LFI or LFII. Your originals and commissions keep their colour.
• A lead that does the work. Creamy and pigment rich, so colour goes down in fewer layers and burnishes to a painterly finish.
• Colour you can find again. Every barrel matches its lead and carries the colour name and number, so reordering is easy.
• Responsibly made. FSC certified cedar, designed and made in Switzerland.
• Open stock. Every colour is sold individually, so your box never has to run out.

Using the Complete Luminance Palette

Pull out one tray at a time to work from, using the leather straps. It keeps your desk clear and the colours in order.

Choose rather than mix: lay the exact local colour, glaze with a warmer or cooler neighbour for depth, then burnish with the blenders for a painterly finish.

The duplicates are your insurance. When a favourite runs low, the spare is already in the box.

Browse more coloured pencil sets, all our pencil sets, or the full Caran d'Ache range.

Questions About the Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Wooden Box of 100 + 12