While out in Port Townsend for JournalFest, I visited
Akamai Art and Glass Supply store. They are the greatest art supply store and they have everything under the sun. I heard about the Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 pencils during a class last year with LK Ludwig. She used them in her journals and thought they were wonderful. I made a not of them but never went to any lengths to find them. Well, lo and behold, when I was wondering aimlessly though Akamai, I saw a full set hanging on the wall and I just had to have them. I can never choose colors so I go ahead and buy the full set when I can and when it makes sense. A box of 6 or 8 versus a box of 18--it was no contest! Ha! They have 1-cm "leads" in them and they go on sort of waxy. However, like the 3-in-1 pencils, they completely dissolve with the application of enough water. A very cool tool for the arsenal indeed.
I visited the JournalFest Gallery and found some items that had been submitted by
Steve Salik. The covers are made of polyer clay and the spines are made of leather. I actually watched him create these at
Play a couple of years ago and watched him demo his method of making faux jade and faux ivory. The handmade books were in my price range so I was fortunate to be able to purchase both of them. I really like Steve as a person and so that made the purchase that much sweeter.
Always being on the lookout for items I don't find at home much, I saw something I had recently heard about but hadn't had a chance to look for yet: Inktense Blocks. These are simply little sticks of the "lead" of Inktense watercolor pencils and allow you to put a lot of color on a page without wearing your pencils out. I used it to make the background for my
little fellow that I posted about a couple of days ago. Not being an experienced watercolor artist I have a lot of learning to do about watercolor in general but at least I have used them and I will likely use them more in the future. The other is a box of Derwent Aquatone watercolor pencils. I have yet to use them enough to comment about them but hopefully I will soon. Oh, and if you are wondering about the black tape, that is what I use to keep the boxes from popping open in my suitcase when I travel!
During the Vendor Night portion of JournalFest, I purchased this visual journaling class booklet from
Juliana Coles. I'm looking forward to cracking it open and getting started with some of it.
I also made some other vendor purchases from some other artists which I may post about later....if I can ever get some more photos taken. Time is of a premium these days.
