New Oil Pastels

I decided I liked working with Sennelier oil pastels well enough to order some new colors. I got them about two weeks ago and haven't had a chance to use the new colors yet. Also, I needed a box to keep all of them in (and a few extras) since they were shipped in five small separate temporary boxes. I checked the art supply web sites and couldn't find what I wanted at a reasonable price. So I decided to make one. I had a metal candy tin with a lid that seemed like it would be the right size so I made pleated paper dividers to hold the individual pastels. I used Bristol paper, but card stock or some paper a little heavier than computer paper would do. On the first try, I made the dividers too wide and the pastels didn't stay in place. I also didn't have enough spaces for the new ones and the extra ones I already had.

 

So I took the paper dividers out and cut them down to three inch width and glued the pleats (which made the spaces narrower) and put them back in.Then I added some Styrofoam dividers to further corral the pastel sticks. I could have used a third paper divider section, but I just used some thin Styrofoam strips to make four sections. I tried to organize the sticks by colors as much as I could.

 

 

I had a piece of Styrofoam that fits on top of the oil pastels when the box is closed to keep the sticks from moving around in the box when carried. To the right of the homemade box, is a set of 24 Sennelier oil pastels that I already had. Now I'm all set to use my new pastels, soon I hope.

 

While I was organizing the rest of my art stuff, I made a water color brush holder out of an old plastic desk tray. I used Styrofoam strips again in the bottoms of the sections and stuck the ends of the brushes down into it. It's easier to see what brushes I have--at least the ones I use most.