My three top dogs would be:
- A like new 40" C+H Advantage Pro mat cutter at a thrift shop for $40
- A 34" x 26" Seal Masterpiece heated dry mount press for about $100 off Craig's List, that will mount stuff 50" tall by literally as wide as you have room to go.
- 4 flat files in 43" to 48" width from a free dumpster dive, to about $50 each.
I know I shouldn't brag about thrift shop and dumpster dive finds, but I just can't stop! (Buying, bragging about or diving for studio gear!)
Comments
* My palette is a picture frame with waterproof tape over the join of the glass and the wooden frame.
*A recent purchase is a $4 plaster trowel from a second hand store to help me paint straight lines since my eye operation has left me unable to see straight lines without distorted lumps and hollows. This way, I know it is straight even if it does not look that way to my eye! It is a pleasure to hold now i have sanded and oiled the wooden handle and polished metal the blade.
*I have been pleased with a $40 table easel I bought at a junk shop. Not only is it useful as an easel, but I was able to hinge a table top on it which turned it into a collapsible table for me to use at the local market where I sold some of my calendars. Now it is dual purpose which is even better.
*2 great old wooden microscope boxes I use for transporting my paint tubes if going outdoors or to a different venue to paint.
*I made an adjustable shelf which sits under the painting on the easel at home. I have the handles from a broken cast iron fire waffle iron which stick in the holes on the easel and the shelf sits on that. It holds brushes and the palette, I can adjust it up and down as required.
*My easel sits on the wooden cap from an old shearing shed wooden wool press. I added casters to the cap years ago for shifting heavy furniture. Now the easel sits on it so I can move it around. It is better than adding casters directly to the easel, since it gives the easel a solid base on which to store paint.
*I love my collection of wooden frames collected from junk shops over the years. Not only are they useful, but they make a pretty display in my sitting room.
*Many of my easels I made myself from wooden fence droppers and other sundry wood I had around.
*Rather than taking an old wooden cot to the charity shop, I painted it in blackboard paint and now store my old paintings and new canvasses in it.
*Recently I was given 2 wheeled metal bread trolleys from a supermarket. They are useful for all my art folders and paper works.
I have always found satisfaction on fixing, or repurposing unwanted items and doing so for art equipment comes naturally to me!