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A Great Kit for ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest’

The 2025 chest in Eastern white pine and some mahogany scraps – ready for work.

Last week, we sent the revised edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” to the printer. It will be released in late June. The book has been updated throughout, including the section on building the chest. The new chest holds more tools and takes about half the time to build (sacrificing nothing in the process).

If you’ve ever thought about building one of these chests, I have good news. Alexander Brothers now offers a kit of wood for the chest in gorgeous and perfect Eastern white pine. Check out the details here, but everything is milled so you can get started. Price: $575. (Alternatively, they will sell you a bundle of rough lumber if you want to save money and do that work yourself.)

This pine is fantastic. I bought the pine for the new chest from Alexander Brothers (at full price – this boy doesn’t take discounts). They have access to clear and wide stock that we simply do not.

Eastern white pine is – hands down – the best wood for this chest. It is lightweight, strong and a joy to saw and plane. Highly recommended.

And because the internet sucks, I have to mention this: We don’t get any royalty, kickback or affiliate money from Alexander Brothers, a family-run business in Virginia. Like Alexander Brothers, all we care about is getting good material in the hands of people so they can build stuff.

— Christopher Schwarz

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05/05/2025
The Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown | Andrew McCullough

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Andrew McCullough | Episode 1042

Andrew McCullough is a studio potter based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. After taking some time away from pottery to further his education–and work in New Brunswick politics–he appeared as a competitor on The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down’s first season. He is now opening a community pottery studio in downtown Fredericton to make pottery more accessible in his area.

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The people on the show The Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown seemed very kind and without nastiness. What the show really kind?

The show was just as kind as what you would imagine from watching it. All the relationships that we had were super genuine and we truly wanted every person to do as best as they could.

Did you feel prepared?

I definitely felt rusty going into the show. I was one of the only people in the cast who wasn’t doing it close to full-time before hand. However I was confident of my ability on the wheel so I said if I can shine there I’ll be happy.

Were you given an opportunity to practice the things that are being presented for you to do that day?

Yeah, we had some of the challenges given to us in advance, so we could plan and prepare at home. While we were in Vancouver we also had one time a week where we could go to a place called Mud Lab studio in Vancouver to practice whatever we wanted in preparation for the show.

When the show aired how did that impact your life?

The biggest impact the show had for me was giving me a chance to step back into the pottery world on my own terms. Like I said, I had been out of the world and now with myself being reintroduced to Canada nationally I can take the opportunity to do what ever I want which is to open a community pottery studio.

Do you feel like your business is going to be stronger as a result of being on the show?

I absolutely feel that being on the show will help my business and the studio that we are creating here. Getting that sort of national attention can only be helpful. Now what matters is what we do with that little bit of extra platform.

What is one thing that you would do differently if you were on the show again?

That’s a really good question. My answer is not going to be what happened on the show but I would have wanted to spend even more time with my fellow contestants outside of filming. We spent all of our free time together I wish the times I stayed home in the hotel room I would have actually stayed out with them because they are all amazing people.

Book

A Potter’s Book by Bernard Leach

Contact

nuceramics.ca

Instagram: @nuceramics

Help Get The Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown renewed: change.org/savepottery

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30/04/2025
5 great art supplies to use in your art studio – Veronica Winters Painting

5 great art supplies to use in your art studio

In this article you’ll find reviews of art materials I use a lot in my painting and drawing practice. These art supplies make a big difference in the final result of my art presentation.

5 art tools for oil painting & drawing to keep in your studio:

#1 The color shaper set

These are great tools for oil painting, pastel painting, and even colored pencil work (if you work on the Icarus board to blend the wax-based pencils).

1. When I paint, they help me clean a sloppy edge. And that’s how I use them for the most part.
2. It’s easy to take the extra paint off the area I put in by accident.
3. I can “carve into” the freshly applied paint to make a specific pattern or texture.
4. I can create an entire underpainting by applying the brown paint first and then lifting out some of the paint with the color shaper creating a drawing!

Made of silicone, the shapers have the unique property of not absorbing the paint. Rather the paint comes off their tips easily and doesn’t need washing. Just wipe the color shaper off with a paper towel. Besides moving the paint around, removing or carving into it, the color shapers are great for blending the oil pastels or wax-based colored pencils (Prismacolor Premier) when heated, using the Icarus Art board. The color shaper set has several tips that you can buy separately or as a complete set. I find that I mainly use the taper point (round tip) size #2 in my art.

You can buy the color shapers at any art supply store online like Jerrysartarama or use this link to buy it on Amazon.

#2 Gloves in a bottle

This is a truly unique product that I love! I especially use it when I paint since the lotion provides relief from a very dry skin, making a protective layer between the skin and the chemicals. A modest amount of lotion works like gloves I use while painting. Its unique formula bonds with the upper layer of my skin and creates the invisible protection from harmful chemicals. It’s waterproof and doesn’t wash off, rather it comes off naturally shredding the dead skin cells. The bottle comes in two sizes. Give it a try!

Gloves in a bottle is a lotion https://amzn.to/3SxSE93

#3 Luminance, professional colored pencils

Swiss-made, Luminance colored pencils is the Cadillac of professional colored pencils. All colors have supreme lightfastness rating. They’re very durable, highly pigmented and have the softness I love. The price tag is very high. Please don’t be tempted to buy them in strange places because they could be the fakes. Buy these from the established art supply companies only like the jerrysartarama. You can buy them in sets or as open stock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu0kycGEWzc

#4 Professional panels for oil and acrylic painting

These are durable, archival, and acid-free surfaces that are great for oil painting. Remember, paintings of the old masters have survived through the centuries because they were painted on panels, not canvases. If you paint professionally and want your art to last, paint on panels.

The cradled gessobords provide much greater support against humidity as the panels resist warping. Gessobords have a very slightly textured surface making them perfect for oil painting because the oil paint needs some tooth to adhere to to create a permanent bond with the surface. Avoid using panels that are too smooth or cheap canvases because the paint doesn’t adhere to the surface properly.
I also use gessobords for my silver gilding. I do sand the surface some with a 800 grit sandpaper but the silver leaf goes over the panel perfectly.
The toned, neutral gray surface of Richeson panels is great for beginning painting without any additional preliminary work, but I find their surfaces too smooth and thus questionable if the paint makes a bond with its surface.
One disadvantage of painting on these panels (gessobords) is the damaged corners. They often arrive chipped in shipping and although art supply companies do replace the damaged stuff, it’s still a big inconvenience, in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxygIkpOwLA

#5 Grumbacher final fixative for drawings and scratchboard art

This is a really great product that’s different from cheaper brands. It makes a very nice, even sheen, eliminating the surface’s unevenness, fingerprints, and other imperfections in scratchboard. The colors look nice and bright. It works great on paper, too. I use 2-3 coats on my colored pencil drawings.
Like other sprays, the final fixative protects your artwork from the UV-rays, moisture, smudges, and humidity.
The only downside is its smell. It’s not a product to inhale. So spray it in a well-ventilated area or outside in low humidity environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9UOM97rVUU

Don’ confuse the fixatives with the varnishes as the varnishes are used in oil and acrylic painting.

Art Lessons in Drawing, Painting & Beyond, 2014 | This is an art inspiration book filled with creative and technical advice coming from contemporary realist artists. Realist artists share their painting and drawing inspiration in the Art Lessons book available in print, on Kindle and as a digital download (pdf file) from: https://veronicasart.com/product-category/art-instruction-books/

These art instruction books are on sale on Amazon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWyIfBFuoBw

Art supplies:

Posted in Art blog, Artist’s studio practiceTagged Ampersand gessobord, art supplies, best art supplies, color shapers, gloves in a bottle review, Luminance colored pencils, oil painting techniques, veronica winters

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25/04/2025