GWA members and guests gathered for their April monthly meeting which was led by Guild member John Lafford. John brought along examples of his work in Pan Pastels, along with materials and application tools of his own devising.
John explained that he had collected his Pan Pastels over a number of years and that they do last a very long time. He had looked at the application tools sold by Pan Pastels but found that they were not suited to the way he likes to work. Being an engineer and thus a problem solver by nature he looked around for materials that would enable him to create his own tools. He found that closed foam makeup sponges suited his requirements and these can be easily cut into squares and mounted on handles. The handles are made from bamboo strips reclaimed from food packaging and wooden coffee stirrers which are bent into shape using a device invented by John.
The beauty of these tools is that they are inexpensive and can be made in quantity to allow for one per colour so as to avoid polluting each of the pots of Pan Pastel with other colours. John had kindly made a lot of extra tools to allow members to use them during the evening and to take some home with them.
John also explained his method of “squaring up” his drawings. It is not a good idea to draw lines on the papers because this causes depressions which show up in the application of the pastels, so John instead makes a vertical and horizontal guides on tape around the work and can then accurately position elements against a ruler lined up with the guides.
After John’s presentation members eagerly gathered around the materials that had been provided to try out the medium.
It was a fun and enlightening evening, thanks to John for leading the session. You can see more of John’s work here
