Two black plastic holders on a printed Mungyo card. The header reads Great for various sizes of (oil) pastel!, and the panel names them PASTEL HOLDER with the Korean 파스텔홀더 beneath. Each holder is a sprung clip on a ribbed body — you push a pastel stick into the jaws and the holder becomes its handle.

The card lists four things it fixes, and every one of them is a real complaint anyone who has used soft or oil pastel will recognise. It states that the holder strongly grasps most sizes of pastel; that it makes the pastel easier to grip and control; that it lets you use a worn-down pastel; and that it keeps your hands clean.

That third one is the reason most people eventually buy a holder. A pastel is used up from both ends, and there is always a point — usually around a centimetre left — where the stub is too short to hold and too expensive to bin, especially in an imported set where a single replacement stick costs more than it should. A holder takes that stub and gives you back the last third of every colour you own.

The fourth is not a small thing either. Pastel transfers to your fingers, your fingers transfer it to the paper, and the pale areas of a drawing go grey without you noticing. Holding the stick in a clip rather than in your hand is the simplest fix there is, and it costs less than the fixative you would otherwise be spraying over a smudged sheet.

The card adds one more line: Connection like blocks. The two holders clip to one another, so a pair can be joined rather than rolling loose in a box — a small thing that matters when a holder is the only piece of a pastel kit small enough to lose.

Rs. 800 for the pack of two, which is Rs. 400 a holder. Two is the right number rather than a padded pack: most people keep one on a dark and one on a light colour so the two never contaminate each other, which is exactly the problem pastel work runs into most.

Why this product is worth considering