Permanent Station for Making Pastel Sticks
Your Pastel Making Station Should Be a Mess - Mine Is, Anyway!Thanks to all of those who have "hit" my how to make pastels posts. I did those early in my blogging career, and they were way harder than I thought they'd be. Dirty hands, camera - you get the idea. I much admire the well done blog posts on this subject. I feel a re-do of that post coming on. And, I feel the pastel making station calling my name, too. Especially with a new bunch of pure tones from which to key off! I want to see if I can make my own statement with hand made pastels in these colors, and I want to get my tints and tones of value expressed, as well.
Upcoming: my interview with Loriann Signori.
Oh - this is such an exciting prospect. I had quite early on investigated into making my own pastels but never went beyond a neutral grey based on my assembled dust. But, yes, I can see that working very well with the pure pigments. I had just been thinking about that with my mixing printing inks - it's such a differently composed medium to pastels that I am eternally amazed at the mixtures I am ending up with
ReplyDeleteThanks for your info re: DIY pastels. Tried it out using jeweler's pumice powder, decomposed limestone, and Maimeri's Prussian pigment..
ReplyDeleteDid I mention I was stupid enough to do this on my kitchen counter? Oh well. My cats have blue feet. :)
They ended up strong, yet soft as butter, with a superfine grit to them. And the color doesn't move or dust up, even on Canson.
Cheers!
It is actually very easy to make pastels, at least at first. The whole range of colors? Maybe a little harder.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds cool, Amy.
ReplyDeleteI'll mention that my ingredients were got from Daniel Smith, but I like your resourcefulness!
My best wishes to you, BTW. I have family experience like your own. God Bless.
I didn't have the patience to order from DS when I read your article. :) I went out right then and curb-crawled all the art stores here in Houston for supplies.
ReplyDeleteApparently, this town is void of whiting, chalk/talc, etc. But, lo and behold, they had the dec. limestone and pumice in the rock polishing/jewelry working section.
I figured I'd just wing it and I pretty much got lucky. I'm sure my old chemistry teacher would be horrified by what I did. ;)
Hi. I just beefed up my pastels, as well. I was totally out of darks. We went to Dakota in Mt. Vernon. There was a sale on a brand of pigments. You might check them out if you are looking for pigments. dakotapastels dot com
ReplyDeleteI don't see it there - was it Wallis Moist Pigment?
ReplyDeleteHi Casey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention about my spring cleaning. I have purchased many Diane Townsend Terrages (LOVE them) and am waiting for my DT Thin Lines to arrive. Do you use any pastels from Diane's collections? I have always been a Girault/Unison gal...but now my eyes have been opened!
When you make your pastel from where do you buy your pigments?
Loriann
I use the regular and the Terrages from Diane. I have used a thin line, and it was very nice. In fact, I just opened a couple new boxes of Terrages that came via UPS this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteBigger the jar, the better, IMO.
I have gotten my pigments from a couple of places, and currently am trying Sennelier, although I have no preferences. I have gotten them from Dan Smith.