Supply List

In this course we will experiment with a variety of mediums including :

• Natural Inks
• Watercolors
• Acrylic inks
• Gelli plate printing

My hope is that you dive into what grabs you and that you take your time to watch a few videos first before you make a run to your local art supplies store. There will certainly be a few processes you are dying to give a try and others less appealing…follow your heart on that – and you can’t go wrong!

NATURAL INK MAKING

• Fine mesh sieve (even a fine tea or jelly strainer could work)
• Alum powder
• Sodium carbonate (Also known as soda ash, make this at home using baking soda following my recipe in the Horsetail and broomrape ink lesson).
• Oak Galls
• Whole cloves
• Glass jars or ink bottles
• Cheese cloth (thick paper towels or old nylon tights work as well)
• Small saucepan (find one that you can set aside for ink making only and not food preparation)

MIXED MEDIA

NON-GRANULATING WATERCOLORS

Non granulating watercolors are ideal for the blooms, back runs and flow marks achieved in this course. I like Daniel Smith Watercolors but there are many great brands to try. Daniel Smith makes it very clear which colors are granulating or not, so I tend to lean towards them (and their colors are great, but there are many wonderful brands out there)! Just pick a tube or two and start from there.

Here are some of my favorite non granulating colors:

• Phthalo Blue
• Phthalo Turquoise
• Naphthamide Maroon
• Sepia
• Quinacridone Violet
• Perylene Green

GRANULATING WATERCOLORS

Granulating watercolor are fun to mix with non-granulating for interesting textures and effects.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Blue Ultramarine Light
• Opera Pink
• Undersea Green

ACRYLIC INKS

Any acrylic ink will do but here are some of my favorites!

• Ecoline
• Pebeo
• a great black India Ink by Pebeo)

• Gelli print plate
• Brayer
• Metallic leaf (I prefer to use copper leaf as it plays well with my color palette, but any type of metallic leaf works! You will need a metallic leaf adhesive to glue it down properly).

ACRYLIC PAINT

We will use these for the gelli printing sessions. Any acrylic paint will do, but I do really like the consistency and vivd colors of the Maimeri brand. This gell medium is great for making the paints more transparent and I use it to glue down collage pieces too.

PAPER

I recommend using a very heavy weight watercolor paper for this course. I prefer 100% cotton paper that is 300gsm weight if not even heavier. At the moment, I’m really enjoying Fabriano Artistico’s Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper, but I even like a good crisp, white, smooth grained Cannon paper as well.

For the gelli printing lesson we will be using a variety of papers from rice to vellum and experiment with transparent layers. My “go-to” is common, tissue paper .

BRUSHES

Any watercolor brush will work for this course. I really enjoy using a simple bamboo Sumi brush used in traditional ink painting and Chinese calligraphy. I also like this long, synthetic squirrel hair brush by the Italian brush maker Tintoretto for abstract calligraphy writing.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some or all of the links in this supply list are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission and we are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Please note that we only share the supplies listed by the teacher in this course. As always, our heart is to encourage you to use what you already have and, when we suggest products, we only share supplies that we use and endorse.