The search begins

So which brand of markers should I go for……. 

 There are so many brands of markers aimed specifically at the craft market these days! 

Of course my first thought went to Copic, but I didn’t seriously consider them as they are wayyyyyyyy out of my budget. I’m a little anal – I know this is not a surprise to those who know me – so I wouldn’t have been happy having Ciaos, I would have wanted the Sketch markers but both are very much out of my league financially, so they were a very quick, very hard pass. Now I know this might sound very dismissive, if I just bought the markers as and when I could afford them that would break it down a bit. But being a fairly experienced colour-in-er-er I want to have the whole set, or as near as possible. So without a major bank loan or maxing out my credit card that was just never gonna happen.

Another brand I dismissed pretty much instantly was Spectrum Noir, I tried these years ago when they first came on the market and they were dreadful (again, my opinion), however, I do believe they changed the pens, including the formulation of ink. Which is a good job as the originals were pretty much an exact copy of the ShinHan Touch markers – to look at, such a shame they didn’t copy the quality while they were at it!. But the main reason I didn’t entertain this brand is because I refuse to buy from the company that owns it, on principal. 

Anyway, I digress, so what other brands to consider? Well there’s a plethora of off-brand markers on eBay and Wish but I’m just not keen on buying something like this without some kind of warranty or guarantee. 

I have a little experience with the ShinHan Touch markers, and I love them, both the brush markers and the ones with the bullet nibs – great quality and easy to use but difficult to get hold of in the UK.

Another brand I tried, and I really wanted to like these, were the Chameleon pens. I get the theory, you don’t need a handful of shades of one colour because you can get a massive range from just one pen, but they are not easy for the kind of colouring I do. They’re great for fairly simple colouring, where the object goes from light to dark, but I have no idea how you would colour a face and hair without it taking hours and hours. They are lovely markers, albeit a little on the long side and I love the idea of the colour tops so you can get a seamless blend from one colour to another but for me, they’re really not much more than a novelty.

 Now, I didn’t want to be splashing the cash willy-nilly and buying lots of different markers to try so instead I did a bit of research online and found some comparison articles

copicthinking

 Jill Cameron Creations

craft and leisure

 amongst others. I also had a look at online reviews for a lot of the markers I hadn’t tried or hadn’t heard of.

 I stumbled across the Arteza Everblend markers by accident, it was one of those spooky adverts that pop up on social media that reminds you that everything you do online is being watched lol. So I popped onto the Arteza website and quickly discovered they produce a vast range of arts and crafts media, lots of pens and paints, pencils and sketchpads etc, but the Everblend markers intrigued me.

I’ll be honest, I was quite sceptical about them, if they were any good then surely I’d have heard about them, wouldn’t I?

So I did a bit of research online and they seemed to get pretty consistent good reviews. You'll have to read my next post to find out what happened next.

thanks for visiting, 

it's always nice to hear what you think so feel free to leave me a comment 

Debz

Back in the saddle

Hi everyone,

Learning to live in Lockdown

Lockdown 2020 has thrown up a lot of challenges for pretty much everyone across the globe. For me, this has meant adjusting to working from home which has taken a bit of time to get used to, and to get into a workable work/life balance.

I very quickly realised that I missed my daily commute. I’ve always said that this is my “thinking time”. On the way to work it’s my time to think about what my plan for work is, what else I need to do during the day, it’s also the time where I can call doctor/school/dentist etc to make appointments or whatever. On the way home it’s my time to process my workday, think about what I have to do in the evening as well as whatever else is going on in the life of my family. It’s the time where I speak to people only if I choose to, and I don’t hear “mum, where’s …” , “mum, can you….” “mummmmmmm”.

I also came to the realisation that this is also my winding down time, where I can switch off working Deb, and turn on home Mum, so without this commute, I found it very hard to switch off from work, it would carry on into the evenings and weekends so that I didn’t feel like I was doing anything else but work.

But once I did realise this, I made a conscious effort to “leave work” one Friday night and spent the whole weekend relaxing, just chilling out without looking at work email or checking the work social media channels or messages. And I think I needed it, the creative juices started flowing again and I got back into the greenhouse, pottering around with seeds and tiny plants.

So I started managing my weeks a bit better, setting aside set working hours and then remembering to walk away from it when my work day was done. Sometimes it’s still a wee bit of a struggle, I was answering social media enquiries at 11.30pm the other night, but on the whole I think I’ve got it more or less sussed.

Rediscovering my craft

As most of you know, I love to colour, but because I have a creative job that’s pretty all-consuming it’s been a long time since I’ve had the time or motivation to do any colouring. I rarely make cards, not even for fun, if I have to make a card for any reason it’s usually last minute and very quick ‘n’ easy. 

So when Krista Smith announced she would be having a Colouring Challenge from the 1^st to 5^th June, it really ignited something – I know how corny that sounds but it’s true. I was excited about it!

So I printed off some of Krista’s Digi stamps and after such a long time sat down to colour again.  

I’m surprised no bats or moths flew out when I opened my case of promarkers and flexmarkers. But it was like I’d never been away from them, it really is like riding a bike!

Sadly though, the more I coloured, the more of my markers I found to have dried out and I had to admit to myself that their days were numbered.

Some of you may know that I used to be Product Coach for Scotland for Letraset – the company that created and made Promarkers, Flexmarkers and Tria Markers. The directors of Letraset sold the company to a company called ColArt who also own brands like Winsor & Newton, Elephant Art and Snazaroo. Unfortunately, they decided to integrate the Promarkers into the Winsor & Newton brand and completely ditched the Tria and Flexmarker ranges, rebranding the Promarkers and launching their own Brushmarkers.

Letraset worked closely and took on board feedback from the craft community as well as the more traditional art community. ColArt/Winsor & Newton don’t seem to have the same interest (in my opinion) and don’t seem to put any effort into the craft market.

So because of this, I decided that I need to find a replacement range of markers….. 

thanks for visiting, 
it's always nice to hear what you think so feel free to leave me a comment 
Debz

P.S.

image; "Smokin' Hot" from Krista Smith

papers: My Minds Eye

media: promarkers

Coming Soon....

I'm having a bit of a revamp of my blog and social media channels, and this obviously takes a wee bit of time, so please bear with me 

stay safe
Debz x