SUPPLIES & LINKS
A selection of tools, materials, supplies and useful links
Each course I run has a comprehensive supply list available on the relevant course page, and when you enrol on the course.
But I have also a created a page to collate together as many links as possible. I am constantly updating so if you find a supplier not on my list please let me know, of if you find a broken link!
Click a button below, or search by word here…
Paper for Collage & Monotype
I have written a blog post a out collage papers. You can read it HERE
Click on links
Silicone paper for stopping paintings sticking together, and for heat setting collage
COMING SOON! Links for Dry Mount film/tissue
I prefer a smooth paper to monotype on like a 140gm drawing paper or any of the following tissues. Collage papers can be any thickness and I often use heav watercolour or intaglio prints as my ‘starter’ paper
DELI, WET STRENGTH, TEA BAG and RICE PAPERS
These are all from 70gm – 20gm and lovely to print, paint and collage with. Some are weak when wet but don’t let that put you off using them, just leave them to dry.
Logan Deli Paper UK (not as thick as Kabnet Wax but available in UK)
Carnival Wet Strength Tissue UK will ship worldwide
Artway Chinese Sumi Paper UK This company sell rolls and pads, the rolls are thinner
Hosho Paper UK and from HANDPRINTED comes in rolls and pads, the rolls are thinner
Teabag paper UK will ship abroad
Toddy Coffee USA large bags (will fit 8x10gel plate and same as Teabag paper)
SWEDISH TRACING PAPER This is around 20gm, like the Toddy and Teabag paper but on a roll. It contains abaca fiber
PATTERNTRACE list of stockists on their website. Check is they sell the Swedish Tracing Paper
Patterntrace Swedish Tracing Paper UK
Patterntrace Swedish Tracing Paper AUSTRALIA
Patterntrace Swedish Tracing Paper GERMANY
Patterntrace Swedish Tracing paper FRANCE
Swedish Tracing paper ETSY USA
Birch Street Swedish Tracing paper CANADA
VERY THIN TISSUES ie 12g or less
Abaca tissue is made from the long staple abaca fibre which, despite its delicate appearance is very strong.It is a very thin tissue, the one I use is 9gm but it can be bought as thin as 3gm. It has great wet strength and is similar to thin tea bag paper. Unlike ordinary tissue paper, it can be glued and dyed without disintegrating. It is often called Lens Tissue or Tissutex<. The Japanese Tengucho (or Tengujo) paper is a similar weight and strength. Gampi fiber comes from the inner bark of branches of the gampi bush. Since it is difficult to cultivate, it is obtained from wild plants, therefore paper is especially coveted and ore expensive..
Collagraphy Printmaking supplies
The links take you to UK suppliers. If you are having difficulty getting anything, try any of the following suppliers:
Jacksons – Link
Intaglio Printmaker – Link
Lawrences – Link
Artsavers – Link
Handprinted – Link
A press with a bed and blanket.
As well as a regular etching press I use a Sizzix Big Shot Plus and an Xcut Xpress. The bed is a cut down 12mm high catering board to 21.5 cm x 60cm. The Sizzix requires a deeper bed so I use one or two 3mm thick pieces of hardboard depending on the thickness of my plate. These don’t have to be as long as your bed, but a minimum of 40cm.
Handprinted sell a kit for the Xcut which will also fit the Sizzix but you will still need hardboard or similar. Blanket can be dense felt or specialist etching blanket I use a 3mm ‘cushion blanket’ of compressed felt
Papers and Tapes
- Paper: I use watercolour paper 220gm from any paper that’s a similar weight, or heavier, will be fine.
- For better quality I use Fabriano Rosapina and Khadi paper 320gm which comes in a range of shapes and sizes
- Tracing paper (one A4 sheet)
- Copy or drawing paper 90gm +
- Newsprint (you can buy it as loose sheets or a pad) A3 or A4
- Blotting paper or smooth absorbent fabric
- Paper for chine colle; I use Wet Strength tissue that I paint with acrylic inks. Found papers such as book pages or sheet music, or origami papers are good too. The only rule is they must be thin
- Aluminium Foil tape 10cm wide (also called insulation foil tape) I use 3M or Mammoth
- Textures; look around the house for any cards with texture, thin fabrics etc Nothing super thick!
- Masking tape
- Sand paper
- Any other tapes that you find interesting ..copper tape etc
Inking, Cleaning & Cutting
- Scrim (Tartalan) or Akua Wiping Cloth or soft cloths such as sheeting or smooth tea-towels, or sew-in interlining fabric (not iron on!)
- Tissue paper or telephone directory paper for wiping plates.
- Babywipes,
- Talc
- A soft toothbrush ( I buy a kids pack of 5 from poundland).
- A spreader; this can be card, or an old credit card, rubber spreader, silicone spreader….
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Scalpel
- A tool for DRYPOINT an etching tool, this can also be a nail or an engineers scribe
- Palette knife
- Cutting mat
- Old store catalogue
- Squeezy bottles 30ml
- Needle tip bottles 10ml
Printing Ink
- I use Akua intaglio in carbon black, another good brand is Caligo Etching ink.
- COLOURS! AKUA make a starter pack with a range of colours and mediums
- Its possible to use oil paint but it will need mixing with Schminke Intaglio Printing Medium. Alternatively any oil based etching ink will be fine but you will need solvents to clean up. You can use relief inks like Caligo Relief Ink but you MUST clean them off the plate thoroughly or they dry in all your lovely textures!
Making Plates
- I use mount card/mat board for making plate (as well as full sheets I buy boxes of off cuts from a framers) You can use any type of card but make sure you have at least one piece of mountcard as its built in layers and one plate we make will be cutting into these layers. Other board and surfaces such as greyboard will work fine, even metal! The idea being they are stable, not too floppy, and not more then a couple of mm thick.
- Perspex/polypropelene basically a 0.5-2mm thick plastic that can be scratched and scored, and/or Mirror Card and/or Enviromount
- Silk Organza a fine weave fabric about 95gm. Thus can be glued down with Gloss Medium but I prefer to use Frisks Punch Peel & Stick or either heat or pressure photo mount film
Wet Media
(mediums pastes and gels etc)
I recommend as a minimum you buy a product that will print light, one mid value and one dark. In addition consider the viscosity of the products you buy; a range of thin to thick will give you greater variety. As you can see I favour GOLDEN. I am a trained educator for them, they do not pay me and I don’t have to promote them, but they do send me stuff! However, I use them as I know they won’t stick to my paper as the polymers are very strong. But there are plenty of other brands, don’t buy super cheap though, it can be a waste of time. A few top quality products will be better than a lot of cheap ones.
As a MINIMUM kit I would recommend one of the following options…
- GOLDEN Gloss Medium or a good GLOSS varnish +PVA
- GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylic (white)
- GOLDEN Heavy Gel GLOSS
- GOLDEN Micaceous Iron Oxide (fluid or Heavy Body) OR Akua Carborundum Gel OR Fine Carborundum powder
- Any brand ready mixed Ceramic Tile Adhesive either marked as waterproof or water resistant
OR
- GOLDEN Gloss Medium or a good GLOSS varnish +PVA
- The GOLDEN Acrylic Pastes and Gels set
- GOLDEN Micaceous Iron Oxide (fluid or Heavy Body) OR Akua Carborundum Gel OR Fine Carborundum powder
- Any brand of ready mixed Ceramic Tile Adhesive either marked as waterproof or water resistant
- GOLDEN Acrylic Pastes and Gels set 6 x 59 ml tubes (as asterixed below*)
- GOLDEN Gloss medium or similar good brand, or good quality PVA (not school PVA!) or liquid gloss varnish. If you are using varnish you will also need PVA glue.
- GOLDEN Soft Gel*
- GOLDEN Regular Gel Semi-Gloss*
- GOLDEN Extra Heavy Gel Gloss
- GOLDEN Extra Heavy Gel Matt*
- GOLDEN Light Molding paste*
- GOLDEN Clear Tar Gel*
- GOLDEN Gloss Varnish
- GOLDEN White acrylic paint or any good quality acrylic as it has to hold on to the plate!
- GOLDEN Gesso
- GOLDEN GAC100 ( very thin polymer, similar to consistency of Shellac)
- GOLDEN fluid 30ml in Micaceous Iron Oxide
- GOLDEN HB Micaceous Iron Oxide
- AKUA Carbrorundum Gel
- Shellac (fluid not flakes)
- Carborundum Grit (fine) to make your own Carb Gel mixed with Gloss Medium, Soft or Regular gel
- Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste
- GOLDEN Crackle Paste
Printing Inks
I like Akua Intaglio as its the perfect consistency, and it lasts for YEARS as you get no waste from skinning etc.
They make a nice set HERE I suggest if you are starting out and want more that one or two colours buy the set.
Caligo Safe Wash Etching ink is good but you will need to loosen it with some oil..veg oil is fine. Buy the TUBES not the tubs as they skin over. Caligo extender makes it more transparent
Tools
Ebay
Rubber squeegees for painting also Small pack of two here
Amazon often have the Zoie and Chloe spreader for sa
Great Art
They make their own flat colour shaper shapers (flat rubber brushes) great for painting and applying glue etc.
The big triangular scraping tools for CWM no 65000
Jacksons
You can read my blog post about rollers here
Speedball Soft Roller
Princeton Catalyst painting tool
Silver Black Pearl Set medium stiffness
Silver Ruby Satin SEt of three brights stiff synthetic
Sillver Ruby Satin Set starter set of 6
Silver Silverstone Fan Brush for blending oil and cold wax
Silver Art Sherpa Fan medium size taklon
Also….
Elizabeth Schowachert makes handmade tools specifically for CWM …..simply gorgeous! You can read my blog about them HERE
Bamboo Wok Brushes*
Natural brushes for oil and cold wax textures.
Paints, inks, mediums & mark making
Paints: Acrylic
Golden Heavy Body
This is your classic tube paint. I always recommend you us it alongside some soft gel, it will make it go further. Link.
Golden Fluids
I love fluids, they are highly pigmented and can be thinned with water of gloss medium, or used to create acrylic inks if mixed with Open Thinner or Airbrush Medium. Link.
Golden High Flow
These are acrylic inks, rich in pigment and can be used in pens. Link.
Paints: Oils
Jacksons – Link
Williamsburg – Link
Rembrandt – Link
Winsor and Newton – Link
Mediums & Solvent: Oil Paints
Cold Wax Mediums:
Jackson’s Cold Wax Department – Link
Gamblin Cold Wax Medium* – Link
Dorland’s Wax Medium* – Link
My SalCera cold wax medium – uses beeswax pellets, Gamsoland Galkyd – the recipe can be downloaded here.
Other brands are available but these two are the least smelly. I have used other brands but find I get a headache from those made with strong citrus-turpenoids
Solvents
Gamsol Odourless Mineral Spirit – Link
Shellsol T Odourless Solvent – Link
Bob Ross Odorless Thinner – Link
Other mediums
Mediums to use with CWM. NB Adding any oil will increase drying time.
Alkyd based:
Alkyd medium – I use Galkyd or a 50/50 mix of Galkyd and Gamsol
Gamblin Galkyd Gel – Link
Galkyd Oil Painting Medium – Link
Damar based; (for Dorlands)
Damar painting medium – Link
Dorlands is softer than Gamblin, it can be thickened with marble dust but you will lose transparency.
Gesso
Liquitex Clear Gesso – Link
Windsor and Newton Clear gesso – Link
Black or White* Golden Gesso, – Link
Mediums, Solvent & gels: Acrylic Paints
Gesso
Liquitex Clear Gesso – Link
Windsor and Newton Clear gesso – Link
Black or White* Golden Gesso, – Link
Printing Ink
Akua Intaglio
I like Akua Intaglio as its the perfect consistency, and it lasts for YEARS as you get no waste from skinning etc. – Link
They make a nice set, I suggest if you are starting out and want more that one or two colours buy the set. – Link
Akua transparent medium – Link
Caligo Safe Wash Etching ink is good but you will need to loosen it with some oil..veg oil is fine. Buy the TUBES not the tubs as they skin over. Caligo extender makes it more transparent – Link
Surfaces for Painting
Click on links
Paper (painting)
Paper for printmaking
(these are the ones I use for printmaking, you can paint on them too!)
Seawhite 225 gm watercolour (also comes in 350gm)
Panels
Jacksons Gessoed Panels (cradled)
Jacksons Wooden panels 5mm thick
Canvas
Belle Arti 575 canvas
https://www.jacksonsart.com/belle-arti-575-ultra-fine-no-grain-poly-cotton-330gsm-universal-primed-210cm-wide-per-metre
In this VIDEO I discuss surfaces to paint on
Reading List for collagraphy etc
Making Collagraph Prints Paperback by Suzie MacKenzie BUY HERE
Collagraphs and Mixed-Media Printmaking (Printmaking Handbooks) by Brenda Hartill and Richard Clarke BUY HERE
Collagraph Printmaking by Mary Ann Wenniger
Collagraph Printmaking by Donald Stoltenberg
Complete Printmaker Paperback – Illustrated, 31 July 2008 by John Ros HERE
Intaglio: The Complete Safety-First System for Creative Printmaking: Acrylic-Resist Etching, Collagraphy, Engraving, Drypoint, Mezzotint Paperback – 15 Feb. 2010 by Robert Adam (Author), Carol Robertson (Author) BUY HERE
Intaglio Printmaking (Printmaking Handbooks) Paperback – 31 Mar 2008 by Mychael Barratt (Author) BUY HERE
