I'm exclusively a pastelist at the moment, but I enjoy color mixing, so I've been investigating homemade pastels. I've made about a hundred custom sticks with some of the Wallis pastel dough pigments, and I just ordered some dry umber, sienna and Mars pigments for further experiments.
I've discovered that being able to say "I make some of my colors myself" is a strong selling point for pastel commissions, even though I wasn't thinking of that when I got into it. There seems to be a stereotype even among clients who know something about the medium that using only commercial colors is less creative, or something. I don't agree with that, but I'm not above mentioning the fact that I mix my own just to see their eyes light up.
Does anyone here have experience with pastel making? I'm not likely to fool with cadmiums or anything else that's dangerous in dust form, but I'm interested in getting more colors as I go. The earths are apparently easy to handle on their own and don't really require binder to make a well-textured stick, but I hear that other pigments can be trickier. I may make an expedition to the Sinopia store in San Francisco soon. Any recommendations?
Laura Shelley
www.laurashelley.com
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