I have used the powdered pigments sold by the Baren mall and find them
to be excellent. I used them in my exchange 36 prints and the prints
were pale. I did not overprint because my ability to register is not
that great. I did press run them because I had left my Barens in the
states, oops. If I had used a Baren I think I could have given enough
pressure to get a deeper color. When you mix our own pigments you have
greater control over the quantity of pigment you use in the mixture,
thus it can result in stronger color.
Power grip tools are good. I have been slowly moving up to the finer
Japanese tools. If you look at the hanga toh sold on the Baren mall
or by McClains you will see that they are round handles. If you want
to make one good tool purchase I would recommend buying a quality toh.
If you learn how to use the toh you will find that it is an excellent
overall tool. You can hold that toh just like a pencil and it works
fine. For a good inexpensive set power grip is great. However the
steel is not as good and they will not sharpen to as fine an edge.
Good quality tools are wonderful to have, but good art can be achieved
using power grip.
Marilynn
Hi Charles, David, Patti et al-
I just looked at my little bottle of Cobalt drier of which I use a
few drops to make up an oil painting glaze and medium - It's made
in France by PEBEO and simply says it's a compound of Zirconium and
Calcium - there's no skull and crossbones symbol - just
has the inflammable symbol and hardly any smell - my damar varnish
smells much worse! The old stuff I used to have was from Windsor & Newton
and I never thought to look at the ingredients -but it was called
Cobalt Drier whereas I suspect PEBEO has altered that to Cobalt
Siccative (in English
and Siccatif au cobalt in French ) but it may not contain any cobalt
at all. It certainly works well ......however, isn't labelling strange.....!!??
Louise
Hello Louise,
As usual, it seems there is not much uniformity. I suppose that is why one must experiment with the materials one has locally. I have never seen the Pebeo brand ... the local art stores here seem to carry only the Stevenson brand. And no doubt there are several other brands, all with slightly different contents!!! From my reading, the commercial paint industry also employs driers, usually with a much higher cobalt content than that sold for artists. If anyone is having trouble finding a local supply of drier made for artists, they would do well to check the local paint stores for a commercial variety.
Cheers ...... Charles
well, about the smell, i know i said big whip about it being toxic cuz everything else is, but yeah my stuff stinks. i have it in an old plastic folgers can b/c the metal container was smashed in shipping and the first time i opened it some spilled everywhere. oops! and part of the reason i only have it open for a few seconds (besides the fact that's all i need it open for) is that is STINKS. i don't know how to describe it. more than 5 or 6 seconds and it's migraine city. no joke. it looks like a purple tar pit.