Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

4/21/2024

Mont Marte Tracing Paper Pad A4 60gsm 40 Sheet

I purchased this pad not for drawing  or tracing, but to use it as part of a wet palette system. I had used thinner tracing paper before this and it was not working. This pad is affordable and the tracing paper is good quality, thick enough to resist moving paint with different kind of brushes on it without tearing apart. It lasts several days on the palette, so it is value for money. 

4/07/2024

MEEDEN Ceramic Rectangle Artist Palette, 9 Wells

This is a great space saver due to its rectangular shape. It's on the small side, so it's easy to position on the table, move around, and carry in my hand, if I need to move between painting areas. Easy to wash under running water with or without dishwashing liquid. I use an old discarded toothbrush to clean the corners and edges. I prefer this palette to the small circular one by the same brand. 

3/25/2024

Wotnot All Natural Baby Wipes, 70 Count

I use these wipes constantly in my art practice. I'm environmentally conscious, so having wipes that are biodegradable, compostable and made of natural ingredients is important to me, and that's why I bought these wipes in the first place. 
 
I use them to clean my hands from paint. Unlike normal household cleaning wipes, these don't irritate my hands or fingers and remove the paint well. I also use them to wipe excess medium or gesso from my silicone brushes and paint from my nylon brushes I directly use them on my artwork (thick watercolour paper previously gessoed), to blend and smudge colours to create depth. They're also great to wipe out painting mistakes, from tiny unwanted blots to whole painted sections. Also excellent for stencilling off colour as they are not as wet as the usual household wipes and work better. The best part is that these wipes can be washed by hand and reused, plus the fibre they're made of doesn't  break or sheds fibers; that's a money saver and so good for the environment.

3/24/2024

Ranger Inkssentials Surfaces Industries Craft Tag No. 8, Pack of 20

I usually love anything Ranger's but these tags are a bit of a disappointment if compared to other tags produced by Ranger (Wakly's or Holtz's for example). They are not good for mixed media; they aren't heavy-weight paper despite the description, curl up badly when I apply gesso to them and cannot hold much weight. I cannot add bulk to the tags (fabric, burlap, embellishments) either. They're OK for flat painting. I haven't tried them with any kind of ink, so I cannot comment on how the paper reacts to them. The craft colour is perfect for application of metallic gold, bronze and brass colours, as the natural paper colour enhances the metallics. 
 
 

Jacquard Lumiere Bright Gold Acrylic Paint 70Ml

I love this line of metallics as it is not transparent or too opaque and, this gold, stands out from any other I have used before. It is a bit on the yellowish side, more than the true gold version from the same brand, and it could be used as brass colour, too. Good quality. A bit pricey but a small amount goes a long way.

3/23/2024

LEMESO 10 Pack 0.3 mm Jewelry Beading Wire Assorted Colors

I got this pack for my art supply stash, as I like working on textured projects. The colours I got are gorgeous; identical to those in the photo. The wire is good quality, easy to bend and cut. This wire can be used for many projects, from craft making, tag art making, mixed media or jewellery making.  However, the wire is as thin as  thread, which is not what I was expecting. The description page clearly mentions the girt, but I didn't know how thick this might be. See my photos to see the sizing of the rolls compared with a sticky tape roll. 

Generic 100-piece Embroidery Thread Cards

These bobbins are a great tool to keep my fairy floss thread, small ribbons and lace pieces all organised and easily stored. They save space in the containers I keep my ribbons and threads, and these don't get entangled with others. The plastic is decent quality. I wish the cards were a bit larger, like taller and wider, but they are great for my organisation and storage needs.

2/24/2024

Aokbean Mixed L 30 Skeleton Antique Bronze Keys

This is a set of decorative keys that can be used in different craft projects and gift packaging. Unlike other craft keys I've bought in the past, these are really good quality, look like real keys, are heavy and they their size is real-size, so not tiny or adaptations for crafts. I wish they came with the locks as I would use them at home if that was the case. Beautiful and good quality. Great value for money.

2/23/2024

2/22/2024

Jacquard Lumiere Halo Blue Gold Acrylic Paint 70Ml

Jacquard Lumiere is an awesome line of metallic paints and this colour is beautiful and interesting to work with. I love the fact that, unlike other metallic acrylic paints, this line offers a good coverage and the quality of the pigment is amazing. This colour is beautiful, but the colour you see from the bottle and what you get when you paint with the product are slightly different. I purchased this colour for the blueish golden green nature of it, which is what the bottle looks like from outside in real life. However, the paint is a multi-chrome with all the pros and cons you get from those colours. On the up side, it can be layered on many colours and looks different depending on the light angle, so it's versatile and interesting. However, this is more a green than a blue, and the yellow gold sometimes overwhelms the other pigments. For me, it's great when I want to jazz up some painting area, but not that good if I want a set colour to use. Good quality product overall.

Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic 6-Pack - Vibrant Set

Liquitex acrylic are amongst my fav acrylic paints in the market. I love the buttery nature of them as allow me to create oil-like strokes, marks and looks. They spread well and a tiny amount covers a lot of space. Pigments are great and lightfast. They last a long time, can be used undiluted to create oil-like paintings, or diluted with water or glaze to use for washes and glazes. They mix well among themselves. The colours in this set are very bright, almost fluoro, and a pleasure to work with them. I think this sizing is perfect as some of the colours might not be everyone's cup of tea. Great start taster, perfect to try before purchasing the full size product.  I bought this packet during the Boxing Day sale and they were very affordable, but they are on the expensive side.

1/02/2024

WARFEL 102 Pieces Octagon Wax Seal Beads (Black)

This is a very small pocket of black wax-like beads. This isn't premium wax at all. As the small letter product description clearly says, it's a mix of resin and wax, so this is not wax or natural-looking sealing wax, which is what I was looking for, or what i would call premium either. My bad that I didn't notice this before ordering. The beads melt OK, but the 'wax' never becomes liquid enough on my burner, which is a standard one. It works well overall, but I have to use many beads for just one stamp. So the 102 beads are actually very little product. The resulting seal is a plastic-looking seal. Due to the average product quality and the small quantity, I won't buy this again as I don't consider it to be value for money or premium quality. 

12/04/2023

Zhu Ting 12-piece Flat Art Paint Brush Set

This is a great set of expensive-looking flat nylon hair brushes perfect for acrylic paint. The variety of sizes is great, but I miss one or two larger brushes. They are great quality. The bristles don't deform despite me leaving the brushes in water for days or using them with acrylic paint, gesso or matte medium.  The handle seems not to stain as quickly or badly as other brushes I own. They clean easily with hand soap under running water even when the paint is a bit dry on the bristles. They are great value for money as well. The only downside is that these brushes are on the small side, and a bit smaller than other brushes with the same sizing (see my photos).

11/19/2023

Mont Marte Watercolour Pad A5 300gsm 12 Sheet

This is an A5 paper pad of good quality 300 gsm paper. You know, there are good and not so good 300 gsm watercolour paper, and this is good paper, and great value for money as well. 

I've tested the paper without pre-gessoing the surface, which leaves the paper more exposed to the media I used. I've used both acrylic paint and acrylic inks, adding quite a bit of dripping and the paper stood everything wonderfully and I was totally surprised at how well it took acrylic paint and acrylic inks, without buckling or deteriorating. I like the paper texture and the fact that the pad is glued just in one of the sides, but I'm not a fan of the paper colour. Yet, it doesn't really matter, because I will be painting over it and I can change that easily.

GAIA Skin Naturals Bamboo Baby Wipes, 80 Piece

I love Gaia products. They never disappoint me. This is also the case with these sensitive bamboo-based wipes. I don't have children, so I bought these wipes to use in my art practice. I have been using cleaning household wipes, critic acid based, and they are great, but they're not environmentally friendly and are sometimes too harsh on painting surfaces, so I thought I would give these Gaia a try.
 
These bamboo wipes have a lovely soft texture and a sweet creamy scent that I love. They are not too dry or drippy, still wet, so they're perfect for smudging and blending different kinds of media on paper without wiping off the whole thing or destroying the surface. They are also great to use with stencils as they wipe off paint and leave clear marks without leaving watery residue or blotting the paint. They are lovely to clean off residual paint from my painting brushes (both silicone and synthetic bristles) after I have had them submerged in water for a while, or to remove medium or gesso from my silicone brushes easily.

They don't work as well to wipe off almost dry paint completely or remove stubborn dry paint on my hands, table or brushes, though.
 
I love that these wipes are plant-based and environmentally friendly. I bought the small package just to given them a try, but I will definitely buy them again in a large package.

HAOZHUZI Circular Paper Cutter

I've been looking for a circular affordable cutter that goes through different types of paper. Unfortunately, this is not the one. I returned this product upon arrival because, although the design is good overall, and the price good, the production of the design is poor.  

THE GOOD
Very light and easy to use. Put the round body on the center from where you want to cut. Adjust the small button tip on the ruler to the diameter of the circle you want (it loses and tightness by rotating it), and then rotate the long ruler around. Perfect circle cut. It works like a flat compass.

It works especially good with normal paper, like printing paper, but it's also good with thicker papers like 200 gsm and 300 gsm watercolor paper, which is what I wanted it for. Needless to say, I had to press quite a bit for the thicker paper to be cleanly cut; when I did not, it left paper traces and unclean edges behind.

The round body has a container in the belly, protected by a lockable lid, where two complimentary blades are located.
 
THE NOT SO GOOD

The circular part is toy-like, so no weight at all. That being the case, the platform slides off center often creating unnecessary cuts and ruining the circle I was cutting. This happens also when pressing it down with my hand. I would not press it too hard because it's average plastic.  There is nothing attaching the round body center to the surface, that's the reason it slides.

This is great  for large circles, from 8 cm up, but not to cut smaller circles as the small adjustable knob stops against the circular body at that distance.
 
No instructions on the box or inside. The cutting blade is protected by a cap that can only be removed if slid on the side, not up. It took me a while to figure it out. You might break it if pressed up too hard.
 
You need a large surface, with no clutter on it, to rotate the cutter easily.
 
Very weak plastic. 

11/18/2023

Mont Marte Metallic Acrylic Paint 8 Piece

I'm happy I purchased this taster set because, after trying it, I won't be buying the product again. For the same reason, I'm glad that I didn't purchase the larger set.
 
The colours are very pretty, and can be mixed or layered among themselves. I especially like the bronze and the copper colours on their own. I also like how the green and blue, the pink and purple, and the copper and bronze mix together. The golden paint is very light, so it looks very pretty over some of the other colours. 
 
In all honesty, the picture of the packaging back on the info product page is clear and you can see that the colours are semi-transparent (marked by the small circle filled half way). I didn't notice the photo, unfortunately, but I was looking for a matte opaque set and this is not. 
 
I don't mind the colours transparency, as they are perfect for layering and to add final touches. However, I find that the colours are very pretty but don't have enough pigment and the texture is medium-body not heavy-body. Besides, the mica content is on the low level, so sometimes the metallic shine doesn't show much.
 
These acrylics are light-fast and can be easily stored vertically in a low pen holder.

A good intro set of acrylics for craft painting. 

UPDATE 30/1/24
I have been using the golden, bronze and copper colours a lot lately. They can be layered easily to create depth and vibrant results. They work especially good on cardboard colour paper way better than on water surfaces. I have come to use several coats to get a bit of more opacity. These are the colours I use the most and they are really pretty. I add a bit of black to the bronze and gold to create a vintage worn-out sort of effect. I have to come to love these despite their shortcomings. A bit of paint goes a long way.

Genixart Flat Paint Brushes Set, 6 Pcs

I have just received this product and returned it. I bought this set as size 12 shows as an xl size in the hands of large hands in the product info photos. This large one must be a triple XL, a 30+ size, not a size 12, because the set contains very small brushes and none of them is the size in the photo. Real size 12 is very small. I have reported the photo several times and they haven't removed it as yet. Why would you want to keep misleading photos on any product page? 
 
REVIEW WAS  NOT PUBLISHED AND THE PHOTO HASN'T BEEN CHANGED AFTER SEVERAL MONTH OF BEING REPORTED AS MISLEADING.

9/17/2023

Mr.do® Professional Dressmaking Scissors Tailor Scissors

Although these scissors are sold as tailor scissors, I bought them to cut thick large pieces of cardboard and  paper, as my average scissors are too small for that, which result in lack of cutting finesse, not straight lines, and I usually need a bit of time and effort to cut anything large.
 
This pair does the job easily, improving the quality of my cutting lines. They cut well paper, thin and thick cardboard, and fabric. I haven't used them with large pieces of fabric or for professional purposes, so I cannot comment on whether they're good for dressmaking or not.
 
The handle bows are large enough to easily fit hands/fingers of all sizes. I have small hands and I have plenty of room, but I still can control them well. They're pleasurable to use despite the size.  See my photo against an 8-inch pair of scissors to get an idea of the sizing scale.  Despite the size, they are quite light.

There are some downsides that I'd like to mention. The handle isn't specially pretty or stylish, and the material looks like a frying pan handle. When I cut thick cardboard, the scissors aren't as smooth or gliding as I'd like them to be, perhaps because the tip and blades aren't as sharp as classic dressmaker scissors are. Finally, the pivot screw is unnecessarily bulky and protrudes quite a big (see my photo).
 
The pair is cheap for a decent stainless-steel pair of every-day crafty scissors.