My Travel Kit

My Travel Kit
Originally uploaded by linfrye

As promised -- my travel kit. I keep all but the sketchpage in a zip lock bag.

There was an interesting post on Wet Canvas last week about using 'Sculpy' clay to mold wells for paint and add them to an Altoid Tin. (see www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5...

I purchased some Sculpy and used a $1, unhinged tin from Michaels Arts and Crafts to try out the idea. As you can see I wasn't very tidy -- but I did manage to get in all my favorite colors. The Altoids tin on the right I prefer for the 'hinged' part ... I don't have to juggle but one palette. Still, I prefer having the colors I like and so I will redo the tin on the left, but neater. BTW, I molded the Sculpy in the Altoids box and baked BOTH in the oven according to Sculpy directions -- worked very well!

A couple of pieces of info:

I used double-faced Scotch Tape to add a piece of freezer paper (wax side up) to line both sides of the palette -- it works incredibly well to mix my paint, and then wipes up clean to remix additional colors. When the 'wax' is worn off, it's a simple thing to pull it off the adhesive and add a new piece of freezer paper.

I cut a sponge to fill in the gap between the paint wells and the tin -- I find the sponge especially helpful to wick off too much water on my brush.

The sketchpad is 7" x 10" Arches spiral watercolor pad, 140# cp. I love it -- but it's mighty expensive. I'm in the midst of constructing my own of a similar size and using the same paper. I'll be interspersing typing paper between the sheets of watercolor paper for journaling. Once I have this spiral-bound and decorated, I'll post. I'm adding an envelop or two as my travel journal to Italy.

The tiny spray bottle works well to wet my paints. It's a 'mini-sprayer' from Ranger.

The double water holder works exceptionally well in the car ... hold just enough water and clips onto my book so I can keep all of this on my lap.

Hope this helps!