Yesterday or today, Faber-Castell still tops.

• Position: What's New?

If you're looking for the very best writing or drawing implements, only one name comes to mind: Faber-Castell USA, Cleveland, Ohio. Founded almost 250 years ago in Stein, Germany, the company's extensive line includes professional art materials as well as products for students, crafters, and hobbyists. Its colored pencils, graphites, charcoals, artist pens, and oil pastels offer unlimited opportunities for creative expression and design. Now, Faber-Castelrs Creative Studio line has introduced two new specialty products designed to bring art and craft projects to life--ColorBurst Paint Pens and PITT Artist Pen Magna Set.

The former is aptly named as the color bursts onto whatever material you are using and is especially vivid on dark or black paper. An interesting feature is the fact that the ink is permanent on paper, fabric, and wood, but removable from glass, plastic, metal, and ceramic. The set ($18.95) contains the colors white, yellow, orange, pink, red, green, turquoise, blue, purple, violet, and black. Use these highly versatile implements for scrapbooking, posters, cards, and most any craft project you can think of. The pens come in a vinyl wallet that is convenient for hanging.

The PITT Artist Pens set ($19.95) contains eight colors selected specifically for Magna cartooning. There are five pens in different shades of gray as well as three with black ink in different nib sizes: brush, medium, and superfine. These...