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Degas's pastel crayons
How the planet's best pastel crayons are produced
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 - These pastels
 - The artist who feared that they would vanish
"I don't know what I'll do when the two elderly ladies that make these crayons pass away," said the artist whose pastel crayons are shown here. But a young woman gave up her job as an engineer to take over the family business that her aunts had left.
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Hand-rolled, they cost five times more than the standardized kind. But because the pigments are more concentrated, the colors "sing". They were the choice of Dégas, Whister, Singer and all the great pastel artists of France from about 1880.
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The young owner meets us in her shop near Notre-Dame. She uses a video to show how she makes the crayons in her workshop outside Paris, explains how her great-great grandfather created their formula and tells us about the artists who favor these pastels.
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