This one is quick, cheap, useful, artsy, efficient (uses mostly things you already have), and looks pretty good. It kind of looks like the pencil holder in Superman's Fortress of Solitude. There is an infinite number of ways to make this, so express yourself.

I actually think this is better than most current pencil holders, in that the pencils are leaning out to be taken. And the individual tubes allows you to categorize your pens and pencil if you have such OCD tendencies.

It uses various sizes of PVC pipe. If you work with PVC a lot you probably like me hate to throw out even the littlest left over piece, here is you answer.

Step 1: You Will Need:

1. Assortated PVC pipe, short lengths. 1/2 inch (only good for one really special pen, but helps with the overall look.) 3/4", 1", and 1.5"

2. Plastic board. Probably the one thing you dont have. Go to a sign company or plastic supply and ask for rements of PVC board.

3. Spray paint. I prefer the look of metallic colors, but whatever suits you is fine, or if youre a PVC purest, leave the pipe with the beautiful natural white, and be proud of the greatest construction material God ever made.

4. A pair of good scissors or shears for cutting the plastic board.

5. A miter saw, set at 30o, but you can try other angles too.

6. PVC primer and PVC glue/cement.

7. Safety goggles.

Step 2: Cut PVC

Cut a few random pieces of tube random lengths between 1.5" and 3.5" (shorter than a pencil.) You could even have a tube longer than a pencil and drop a marble or clay or erasers down the tube to make the pencils stick out.
Make the cuts on both ends 30o but you can experiment with more or less, even different angles if you really want the feeling of organic randomness.

For the big tubes of 1.5 make the cuts low, these will be your paperclip holders.

Use those safety goggles!

Step 3: Clean and Paint PVC

Take off the PVC markings with Acetone, and sand the tubes down a little to get the paint to hold.
Stack all the tubes on the end of a 1/2 inch dowel. This makes for easy painting and drying. You could wait until the whole thing is assembled and try to paint then, but it's impossible to get into the crevasses. If you paint before you will still need to paint again after it's done to get the base and make a nice gloss finish. Try not to get paint on the bottoms where you will be glueing.

Step 4: Sand

Sand the bottoms of the PVC tubes to get off any paint that may be on there. You need a clean surface for the primer and PVC cement to hold.

Step 5: Mark and Cut Out the Base

Using something round draw a circle the PVC sheet with a marker using a bowl for a pattern to make it nice and round. I guess you could make the shape almost anything, but I like the roundness matching the roundness of the pipes. But matching the ovalness of the angle cut pipes could be cool too.

Cut out a circle with scissors.

Step 6: Prime and Cement the PVC

Preplan where you want the pieces to stick. Make them stick close together so they support each other vertically as the cement will only hold the bottom horizontal plane.

Apply PVC primer to the end of the PVC pipes and the top of the PVC sheet that is now a circle.

Apply PVC cement to the tips of the pipe and sick them in place and hold for about 10 seconds until it holds on it's own. Repeat until all tubes are in place.

Step 7: Repaint

Allow cement to harden and set. Paint again. This is not a plastic painting instructable, so do what you need to do. Allow to dry and enjoy.

I would love to see pictures of your pencil holder. Please share.