California Cedar Products Company (CCPC) has launched its redesigned and re-branded consumer website under the Pencils.com brand at www.pencils.com.

Pencils.com, formerly known as “The Incense Cedari Institute - Pencil Pages”, was originally established in 1995 to provide educational information to teachers, students and parents about the production of wood-cased pencils and as a means of communicating the important message of utilizing well managed renewable forest resources. The website supplemented other learning materials distributed by the Incense-cedar Institute, including a well received Teacher Education kit titled “The Story of Pencils: Technology & Tradition”. For several years the Institute also held an annual Pencil Doodle Contest.

“Since the consolidation of the individual member companies of the Incense Cedar Institute into California Cedar Products Company in the late 1990s this website has remained substantially unchanged,” states CalCedar President Charles Berolzheimer. “Despite the inactivity of the Institute and no new significant content additions to the website since that time we still have over a hundred thousand visitors each year just seeking to learn more information about pencils.”

Berolzheimer continues, “ For quite some time I’ve had the dream to expand and build upon this resource to better promote the wood-cased pencil and its contribution and use in society as perhaps the most ubiquitous consumer goods ever developed to express oneself in written or artistic form.”

The new Pencils.com site continues and greatly expands CCPC’s long tradition of supporting education. “The Story of Pencils” learning resource has been moved fully on-line at the site including the provision of downloadable Lesson Plans and Activities as well as tools for Teachers to add and share lesson plans in other subject areas. New content specific to environmental education in the forest products arena as well as exploration of the economic factors involved in the globalization of the pencil industry has been added. This means that the “The Story of Pencils” remains a relevant case study for children to learn about industry, international trade, sound natural resource management and other related subjects.

The new site integrates an array of new web 2.0 tools to build a community of pencil enthusiasts who can contribute content of their own whether that interest is driven by their everyday use of pencils as a teacher, student, artist writer or even as a collector of pencils. Image galleries for pencil related artwork are found in the Teach & Learn and Creativity Studio channels, journals and other creative writing in the Inspired Writing as well as a growing number of images and links on the history and development of different pencils. Forum discussions provide for ongoing discussions on a number of products. Video pencil drawings and illustrations add to the excitement. The Pencils.com Store also adds on line sales of pencils including the company’s California Republic Stationers range and other manufacturers using pencil slats produced by California Cedar Products.

“Our ultimate goal is to support the sharing of creativity that is in some way facilitated or even inspired by pencils themselves,” says Berolzheimer, “in essence a continually growing and evolving celebration of the Pencil and its role in the world. If we and our slat customers sell a few more pencils along the way that’s an added benefit of course.”

California Cedar Products Company (CCPC) is the leading supplier of Genuine Incense-cedar pencil slats for use in manufacturing of wood cased pencils for writing, art and cosmetic applications. CCPC produces both Incense-cedar and alternate species wooden pencil slats in its Tianjin, China factory which are marketed under its CalCedar and EcoSlat brand names respectively. California Republic Stationers, an operating division of CCPC, markets finished pencils under its FSCi certified brand name ForestChoice as well as the Palomino, Golden Bear, Prospector and Spangle brand ranges through its Pencils.com, ForestChoice.com and Pencil Creativity Store @ eBay websites as well as through various dealers and distributors.