Sunday, April 24, 2016

Media Molds and Containers

The next thing you need to do is to purchase equipment, molds and containers for the media that you intend to make. The whole idea behind this project is to get away from the expense and unnecessary waste of traditional art supplies that are meant to be disposable.

Traditional Paint

Empty Paint Tubes are $0.79-0.99 each at Blick ArtThese are best for terpene based oil paint formulas. Paint tubes are available in different sizes: 22ml, 35ml, 50ml and 100ml. You don’t have to store your paint in tubes though. You can store it in glass or steel jars and remove the amount you need.
Aluminum Tube Crimper Pliers from U Make Cosmetics for $64.95.
2oz. Stackable Window Steel Cans are $22.32/24 from Paper Mart.
Refillable Aluminum Oil Paint Pens $82.99/50 from The Paint Pen People. These are best for terpene based oil paint markers.

Empty Refillable 5 or 10ml Silicone Tube for acrylic, watercolor or calsolene oil tube paint. $13.00/50 on Ebay. You may need a syringe to fill them. I like these so much better than aluminum tubes because they're refillable and transparent.

2oz. Clear Plastic Jar is $11.40/24 from Paper Mart. Lids available here. Photo isn’t the same.

4oz. Jelly Mason Jar will hold any paint formula. You can’t beat a classic.

Empty 2oz Flip-Top Bottles are $7.49/12 at Blick Art.
21x24 mm Square or 15 mm Round Makeup Pans for stencil creme or watercolor. TKB sells the square pans at $4.00/25 and the round pans at $2.50/25. They will stick to a magnet.
ZPalette magnetic makeup palettes. Here's a great DIY tutorial for making one.
  
There are a lot of options for travel palettes. Most artists make them with Altoids tins. Using a magnetic sheet and makeup tins, almost anything can be made into a palette. I found these made out of travel sketchbooks on Etsy.
  
Kremer Pigments sells full and half pans for $4-6.00/25.
 
I found this great 40 piece watercolor palette on eBay for $20.99. The pans are included.

Soft pastels can also be pressed into pans. This 28 piece palette of 26mm pans is on eBay for $7.05.

Buy acrylic pressing tiles from TKB for $1.25/3. Use them for pressing pan pastels.

Paint Sticks and Oil Pastels

Full size oil sticks are 4-1/2" long, but I cut mine down to 2-1/2". Each mini Shiva paint stick is 1-1/2x5/8". My measurements are 2-1/2x3/8" so they're twice the length of a mini and half the full size, but the volume is the same. 
5ml Centrifuge Tubes for oil paint sticks. $4.17/50 on ebay.
10ml Centrifuge Tubes for oil pastels. $5.17/50 on ebay.
Clear lip balm tubes are about half the size of tempera paint sticks and gelatos, but they work. These are $14.95/100 on eBay. Capacity is 0.15oz or 4.2g.


2ml Test Tubes for liquid ink and watercolor. Stand on flat base with label. $7.46/100 on ebay.
2ml Test Tube Box $7.30 on ebay. Keeps tubes upright for filling and storage.

Empty Markers

Copic Multiliner SP pen is refillable and the nibs are replaceable. 0.5mm point for ultra fine lines and 0.7mm point for fine lines at $8.23 are available here. Capacity is 6 ml.
 

Refillable Fine Liner and Chisel felt tip markers for alcohol based ink from The Paint Pen People. $119.99/150 fine liner and $65.99/100 for broad tip.
Fantastix felt tip bullet and brush tip markers for dye based ink available from Soft Expressions 100 for $64.80
 
Pump Markers

Squeeze Pens

Aqua Twin
Art Primo is the best place to get Molotow markers and replacement nibs.
Empty Montana Black Marker Montana offers a roller ball marker that Molotow doesn’t have. $2.25-6.52 at dickblick.com.

Replacement Nibs
 
Blank Standard Size Stamp Pad for $8.71 on eBay.
 
Blank Mini Stamp Pads 6 for $9.93 on eBay.
 
Blank Cube Stamp Pads 5 for $12.95 on eBay.
 
Blank Segmented Pad $12.87 on eBay.

Pencil Leads

A standard pencil is 7.5" long. You can make full size "woodless" pencils, but you'll use more material and it will cost more to make them. I made leads for myself, but wrote a recipe for 3-1/2" pencils as well.

10 ml Luer Lock Syringe on eBay for $5.99/10. Use these to extrude mechanical pencil leads.
 
Steel Luer Lock Dispensing Needles 12-30ga, one of each on eBay for $14.01. 21, 19, 17 and 13 gauge are the most common sizes for mechanical pencil lead.
June Gold sells 2mm colored mechanical pencils with built in sharpeners in 36 colors with refills for $19.99. The set comes with two pencils for each color making a total of 72 pencils. Half of these pencils can be used for a different color. I own this set and sometimes the lead doesn’t want to advance because it’s stuck in the lead holder. The spring is also defective in some of the pencils.
A lot of five 2mm Mechanical Pencils are available from AliExpress for $1.79. Colors are sent at random. Use these for expanding a palette or replacing duds in the June Gold set.

Silicone Pencil Mold for making woodless pencils on eBay for $7.53.

4 mm Leads, Soft Pastel and Chalk
Catheter Tip Syringe to extrude 4mm leads $0.95 ea.
Cretacolor 4mm Lead Holder $3.86 at dickblick.com.
Makins Clay Extruder $6.24 from walmart.com. You need the 4, 6 and 8mm round dies that come with the kit. 
 
I bored out the 8mm with a 5/16" drill bit and then increased to a 3/8" bit for the chalk. Do not use a drill; turn the bits by hand.
Corrugated Paper Sheet for shaping and drying 4mm watercolor, colored pencil, soft pastel, or chalk. $3.30/10 at papermart.com.
"B" Flute Corrugated Paper Roll 4" for shaping and drying standard size chalk or oil pastels. $4.92 at papermart.com. FYI: the roll is huge!

Storage

Wrap soft pastels with labeled newsprint. The pastels and corrugated paper can be stacked in a craft box. Richeson Roz Boxes are available from Art Supply WarehouseThe Neef pastel box is available from Australia. Pastel drawers are available on eBay for $46.09.

Wax Crayons
0.2ml Micro Centrifuge Tubes for stackable wax crayons $8.95/100 on eBay.
1.5ml Micro Centrifuge Tubes for mini wax crayons $8.95/100 on eBay.

0.5ml, 1.5ml and 2ml Centrifuge Tube Stand on eBay for $9.50. 96 hole
 
5ml Centrifuge Tubes for standard wax crayons. $34.00/25 at Care Forde Science.
5 ml Centrifuge Tube Stand $8.16 on ebay. Keeps tubes upright for filling and freezing.
10ml Centrifuge Tubes for jumbo wax crayons. $2.29/10 on eBay.
10 ml Centrifuge Tube Stand $6.99 on ebay. Keeps tubes upright for filling and freezing.
 
I also, have an idea for buying children's art supplies and using them as housings, even though there may be a size discrepancy.
These twist up colored pencils can house water color, ink, and wax core colored pencil leads.
These twist up crayons can house oil pastels and water soluble wax crayons.
These twist up face paint sticks can house oil paint sticks and pastels.
 
These markers can house homemade ink and watercolor.
Unbranded 80 count dual tip alcohol markers for $48.69 on ebay. These can be refilled when they run dry.

Don't underestimate children's art toys either.
The Crayon Maker can melt wax and pour homemade crayons into a mold. These molds are better than the centrifuge tubes. I couldn't find real ones, so I improvised.
Use this Paint Maker to shake up homemade paint formulas or mixes.
This Marker Maker includes broad tip refillable markers. The work station can also be used to fill other markers.
This airbrush compressor can be used with any marker for airbrushing. Try it with your homemade markers.

No comments:

Post a Comment