“So they smell like baby pow-der
when you first make them,”
Quinn says.
Be careful, she warns, to buy
real talcum powder and not
cornstarch. The binder, color,
chalk, and talc are blended to
a desired firmness, rolled into
sticks, and set aside for two days
to dry.
Donald Furst, professor of
Studio Art at the University of
North Carolina at Wilmington,
teaches a class on The Art of
Pastel.
“Making your own pastels is
gloriously messy but worth the
trouble, as you can customize
the size, shape, and precise color
at a fraction of the cost of com-mercial
pastels,” he says.
Two days in Furst’s course
are devoted to rolling pastel
sticks. He uses precipitated
chalk, which is artificially
made, and a weak solution of
methyl cellulose in water for a
binder. Methyl cellulose, he says,
is essentially wallpaper paste.
Dry pigments come in a spec-trum
of vibrant hues like this
ochre. Donald Furst’s students
learn how to make pastels dur-ing
his class at the University of
North Carolina Wilmington. He
encourages them to form the
pastels into any shape they wish.
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Making your own
pastels is glori-ously
messy but
worth the trouble,
as you can custom-ize
the size, shape,
and precise color.