Pastel Station

One of my readers asked if I could give tips on how I store and organize my supplies. So, in response to that request, here is the first of several articles concerning what I have learned over the years about organizing and storing my art supplies.

The Pastel Station

First is something I am rather proud of. It's my pastel station. It consists of a tool box that has three flat drawers on top and two shelves underneath. I have converted it into a place to store my pastels.

In the top three drawers I store my pastel sticks, including soft, semi-hard, and hard sticks. I try to keep them separated by hue first, then within each hue family separated by values. I did not have quite enough room to store them all, however, so some of them are stacked on top of each other.

I wanted some foam padding to line the drawers with so the pastels would be protected, but had a difficult time finding some except for in large quantities, which I did not need. Then while walking through the Dollar Store one day, I saw contact paper and in with the contact paper was some black foam-like padding that was perfect for the job! It came in smaller quantities and was very inexpensive. So, I measured it out, cut the pieces, then doubled them and laid them in the drawers, placing my pastel sticks on top. Worked like a charm!

In the bottom section, the two shelves, I have two sets of small drawers that hold pastel pencils and other small assorted pastel supplies, plus a wooden box that holds a complete set of Derwent pastel pencils, several boxes of small Rembrandt pastel sets, a small set of Richeson semi-hard pastels, a full set of NuPastels, and several pan pastels.

On the very top of the pastel station I have a full set of Conte pastel pencils and a lazy-susan type of device that holds my pastel powders. Long before pan pastels were developed, I was grinding down pastels into powders to use in artwork. It's not the exact same thing as Pan Pastels (my powders have a bit less pigment), but it's close and works fine for me. It's also a lot less expensive!

So there you have it: The Pastel Station!  You'll also notice that it has wheels, so I can move the entire station conveniently and with ease to either my drafting table or to my easel so all my pastels will be right at my fingertips. I love this set-up, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I get many more pastels.