4Real Forums: My New Favorite Thing/Cray-pas

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The Arts in the Everyday
4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday

Topic: My New Favorite Thing/Cray-pas

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 6:54am \| IP Logged

Cray-pas or this or this

We went to the storytime/craft at the art museum, and they used cray-pas. Actually, they used them last summer, too, but I wasn't entirely sold. But yesterday, I really fell in love.

It is a cross between a crayon and a pastel. So, you can use a cloth to blend to the effect of a pastel, but there is no messy powder or residue from using and thus MUCH cleaner.

Anyway, I really WANT to be the mom who encourages artistic expression, but I am actually the mom who DREADS pulling out the paint or chalk. I'm going to get some of these (probably for the Easter Baskets) to have a "special" thing to pull out that isn't crayons or pencils but won't cause so much anxiety.

They are affordable, too. They are a bit softer than a crayon, and I wouldn't leave them out like crayons, but I'm excited about this new medium.

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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony

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Paula in MN
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 7:26am \| IP Logged

The Easter baskets thank you...

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Paula
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lapazfarm
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 3:32pm \| IP Logged

We love our oil pastels! We have an assortment of brands (Cray pas included), and my dd uses them all the time, for the majority of her artwork. The nice thing about them I think is that you can imitate the effects of oil painting very well with them, so they are great for copying famous art pieces.
If you are interested, you can see some samples of JBug's pastel work here
and here.

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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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CrunchyMom
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 4:20pm \| IP Logged

lapazfarm wrote:

I was just discovering the variety of brands!

Do you have a favorite, Theresa?

(btw, those posts of JBug are some I have kept in my mind for some time, waiting until my boys are old enough!)

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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony

[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR

lapazfarm
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 7:47pm \| IP Logged

Our favorites that we've used are Caran D'Ache and Gallery brands, as well as Pentel. We do not care for the Reeves brand much at all. The colors are much less vibrant than the others.
JBug likes the Gallery brand because they are fat and so don't break as easily as the others. I prefer Caran D'Ache for myself.
I notice Dick Blick only seems to have the gallery brand in odd colors (metallic and fluorescent). We have them in normal colors, but I don't know where we got them from. I just did a search and found some here:Gallery pastels
(Not sure if they are the same as ours-the wrapper is different.)

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Theresa
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets

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Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:34pm \| IP Logged

We love oil pastels too! We stumbled across them on accident. I remembered the special colored chalks (chalk pastels, it turns out) that we used on occasion in grade school and went looking for them. Bought oil pastels instead. Ours are Pentel. I'll have to look at Caran D'Ache (sound fancy!) and Gallery when ours run out.

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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)

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stefoodie
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:41pm \| IP Logged

I love oil pastels!! And I like using Caran D'Ache just because the name is so fun. Yes, I'm that shallow.

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stef

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lapazfarm
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:53pm \| IP Logged

stefoodie wrote:

I love oil pastels!! And I like using Caran D'Ache just because the name is so fun. Yes, I'm that shallow.

LOL!

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Theresa
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets

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Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:57pm \| IP Logged

stefoodie wrote:

I love oil pastels!! And I like using Caran D'Ache just because the name is so fun. Yes, I'm that shallow.

Ok... so how would you pronounce that?? (So that I can look like I know what I'm talking about at the store.

)

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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)

stefoodie
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Posted: March 26 2010 at 10:05pm \| IP Logged

karan dash.

oh and janette. i just googled. some guy was saying how it's derived from russian (or was it turkish) word for pencil. (and that the "n" is not to supposed to be stressed) and then another guy from texas interjected that in texas it would be mangled so many different ways. like people would probably say

Car and Ache

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stef

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lapazfarm
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 1:06am \| IP Logged

Well, if you are going to splurge on something for *yourself*, you have to get these:Caran D'Ache Neocolor II artist crayons.
I got some as a Christmas gift and oh, my goodness are they ever lovely!
They have all the smoothness and blendability of oil pastels PLUS they are water soluble, which adds a whole other layer of versatility.
I

them very much.

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Theresa
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stefoodie
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 5:56am \| IP Logged

Oh yes, those! We have the littlest set (they are pricey) -- and the kids love them. We got them to use with Artistic Pursuits. Hmmm.... maybe Mother's Day.

I haven't tried Gallery. More things for the wish list (like it's not long enough yet)!

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stef

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 6:59am \| IP Logged

Thanks ladies! I was going to go for the Cray-pas which are pretty cheap, but the shipping (if that's all i ordered) on Dick Blick was going to be more than twice the cost of the crayons. So, I looked on Amazon and found these: Charles Leonard Oil Pastels I have Amazon Prime, so, i couldn't beat the price to have them shipped to my door. I figure it was worth it to try them, and they'll still be fun in the Easter baskets. If they aren't as nice, I'm not out much, and we'll have a set for the baby to use if we decide to get a nicer one for the olders

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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony

[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR

cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets

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Posted: March 27 2010 at 8:22am \| IP Logged

Love the suggestions and pronunciation! You would not believe how badly some proper nouns get mangled here! Especially cities -- you see the name and then you hear the locals pronounce it and wonder how on earth the two could be so different.

Love the idea of Mother's Day. Back before children I used to paint with acrylics. I have only pulled the stuff out once or twice in the last decade and I was never very good, but it sure was enjoyable. Water soluble pastels would be easier to set up and put away. I really don't do enough art or nature study myself. Spring is the perfect time for this.

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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)

Christine
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 9:31am \| IP Logged

We really like oil pastels, too. My children enjoy making variations of this craft with them. We usually make Easter cards like the one pictured. This year, our parish homeschool group will most likely be making Mother's Day cards like this, only with a different positive/negative template.

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Christine
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MaryM
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 11:07am \| IP Logged

Oh Christine, your pastel cross silhouettes are beautiful! Great idea.

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Mary M. in Denver

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lapazfarm
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 4:01pm \| IP Logged

Love the cross, Christine! Great idea!!! I think you could do that craft with soft pastels or pan pastels also (or even colored chalk), if you don't have oil pastels.

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Theresa
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lapazfarm
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Posted: March 27 2010 at 4:03pm \| IP Logged

CrunchyMom wrote:

Thanks ladies! I was going to go for the Cray-pas which are pretty cheap, but the shipping (if that's all i ordered) on Dick Blick was going to be more than twice the cost of the crayons.

Yes, this is why any time I order anything from Dick Blick I just throw in a box or two of pastels. They are so cheap and I know we will use them up.

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Theresa
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