by Judy Gula, Artistic Artifacts Paintstiks are the perfect product to use for creating rubbings from Vintage Indonesian Tjaps. [Tjap is pronounced “chop.”] Tjaps, both new and the antiques I’m featuring here, are batik tools that are handcrafted from narrow strips of copper and copper wire that are used to stamp wax patterns into fabric. […]
Quick Tips for PlayColor Rubbings
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor I’ve been been playing with the new PlayColor solid paints for a couple of months now, and today I want to share a few tips about making rubbings. As many of you know, one of the ways I love to use Artist’s Paintstiks is to put textures under […]
Learn To Stencil With PlayColor Paints
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor Last week, I told you about the cool, new PlayColor paints that have just become available in the United States. PlayColor paints are tempera paint in a stick form, making them a water-based paint. You can read my initial review by clicking over to New PlayColor Paints Are Here! […]
New PlayColor Paints Are Here!
After 14 years of playing with Shiva® Paintstiks®, I’m thrilled to announce that there is another solid paint product on the market. It is different than my beloved Paintstiks, but it is very cool, none the less. I’ll be talking about the PlayColor paints a lot over the next few weeks. However, today I want […]
Ask Shelly: Do I Really Need A Blender Paintstik?
Many of you have acquired Paintstiks Blenders over the years, and I get a lot of questions about how to use them. Let’s start with what a blender is, and then tackle whether or not we need them. You might be surprised by my advice about these sticks. First of all, let’s be clear about […]
Your Art Is Ready When You Are
While I was vacationing in Chapala, Mexico I had the pleasure of meeting Lorraine Taylor, a lovely and talented lady from Chemainus, BC. Chemainus is located on Vancouver Island. It’s an old mill town that is best known today for the murals painted on many of the buildings. Lorraine spends the winter months in Mexico […]
Color Confidence: Test, Do Not Guess
I was visiting with one of my friends last week and our conversation turned to the Shape Shifter Community Challenge. She is planning to make a handbag and she wanted my opinion on which Paintstik colors would look best on her fabric. I remembered a fantastic idea for testing colors from Nancy Kazlauckas, as well […]
Enter To Win Our Paint Your Blocks GiveAway
Start your year off with a bang when you enter our Paint Your Blocks Giveaway! I know that you love the chance to win a really cool prize; I’ve teamed up with my good friend Laura Murray to create a super-duper prize that could be yours! Laura has generously provided one of her fabulous new […]
Paint Your Blocks Instead Of Piecing
Years ago, I grabbed Laura Murray during a quiet spell at the Minnesota Quilt Show and dragged her over to my booth. I said, “Laura, you’ve got to see these really cool Paintstiks. I just know you’ll love them!” For any of you who have met Laura at a quilting or sewing show, you know […]
Linoleum Prints #1: Paintstik Rubbings
A few months ago, I started thinking about printmaking. This is a topic I’ve wanted to explore for a number of years, and I decided that it would be an excellent winter project. The snow is not flying just yet, but my carved linoleum sheets have been whispering in my ear every time I walk […]
Start Simple with Placemat Project
In last Monday’s post, I talked about projects you can make with the Primrose Stencils including the big (huge?) Woodland Flowers Quilt. If you missed it, I also said this was NOT the first Design project I would tackle if I were new to paintstiks or Design Magic. (It’s not a difficult quilt, just a […]
Design Magic: Make Scrollwork This Summer!
As part of my visit to Bernina University, I offered the dealers and shop owners a free DesignMagic stencil along with a free project. (More on the project at the end of the post.) I was really interested to see which of the 4 stencils (Safari, Scroll, Fractured-X or Wavy Squares) they would choose most frequently.
While all of the stencils were popular, 35% of the dealers chose the Scroll stencil to make the sample for their project. The most frequent comment was that they liked the circular lines of the design — often referred to as “curlicues.”
