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

Hahnemuhle  SUMI-E UK

Hosho Paper UK   and from  HANDPRINTED comes in rolls and pads, the rolls are thinner

Yasomoto Hosho USA

Teabag paper UK will ship abroad

Tea bag UK

Teabag paper USA

Teabag Paper EU (Netherlands) 

Toddy Coffee USA large bags (will fit 8x10gel plate and same as Teabag paper)

Toddy bags 20 EU

abaca German supplier sheet

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..

Abaca Tissue UK (Colourcraft)

Abaca Tissue UK (George Weil)

Abaca AUS

Abaca Tissutex (two weights)

Abaca USA

Abaca germany

Gampi UK

Gampi USA

Gampi Canada

Gampi NZ

Tengujo UK

Tengujo EU

Tengujo USA   

Tengucho USA

Tengujo USA

Tengujo CA

Tengo Jo CA

Tengujo Australia 

Tengujo Australia

Monotype (gelli) Printmaking supplies

The links take you to UK suppliers. If you are having difficulty getting anything, try any of the following suppliers:

JacksonsLink

HandprintedLink    

Gel plates

Jacksons16 x 20 gelliarts

I use Gelliarts, Gel Press but my own JELLY PLATE recipe can be found HERE

Collagraphy Printmaking supplies

The links take you to UK suppliers. If you are having difficulty getting anything, try any of the following suppliers:

JacksonsLink

Intaglio PrintmakerLink

Lawrences – Link

ArtsaversLink 

HandprintedLink    

 

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

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.

Akua transparent medium 

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

Soft Roller for Cold Wax  

You can read my blog post about rollers here

Speedball Soft Roller

Pottery toolsset

Princeton Catalyst painting tool

Silver Brushes

Silver Galaxy SEt

Silver Silk Wash

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

JacksonsLink

WilliamsburgLink

RembrandtLink

Winsor and NewtonLink

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)

Arches Huile

Fabriano Pittura

Paper for printmaking

(these are the ones I use for printmaking, you can paint on them too!)

Fabriano Rosapina

Khadi

Seawhite 225 gm watercolour (also comes in 350gm)

Panels

Seawhite Cradled 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