Hobby, crafting, or art no-buy anyone? (perennial self-accountability thread)

I've been thinking of going on a no-buy for my hobbies starting in the new year.  I'm just waiting on a black Friday sale to get a few more watercolours,  and that should keep me happy for at least a year.

Only now, it looks like a postal strike might squash those plans and my no-buy starts early.

So what are my no-buy guidelines?
- no new art or crafting supplies
- unless I used up completely the previous one AND it's something essential like yellow ochre or paper
- proudly show off empty package of finishes supplies
- it's okay to buy supplies for classes but see if I can make do with what I have first
- birthday treat okay. But just one.
- allowance for life because life is messy
- thrift store and second hand okay
- that charcoal pencil I adore but is always out of stock is okay so long as limit to $35 or less for the year.

That seems like liveable guidelines. I wonder if they would work.

Basically the goal is to save up for some big things I want to get next year black Friday while getting to know how to use what I already have.  I've started wasting crafting time researching new things I could get when really,  I probably have what I need already.

Anyone else doing a no-buy for their hobby, crafting,  or art?  What guidelines will you follow?

I totally forgot my plan to buy some naples yellow oil paint.  Drat this no-buy already.   I don't actually need it yet, it just would be nice to have.

Better get painting and use up some yellow.

There's a lot of marketing involved with art and craft supplies, and it's easy to get caught up wanting the newest shiny thing. I don't do no-buy generally. I tend to leave "shiny" things on my list for about three months. If I still want it after that, it comes home with me. I think the last shiny I got was the kuretake granulating watercolors. They took a couple months to restock after I first wanted them, and I was still delighted to play with them when I finally could get them.

I try to hit my stash first for anything I need, and I am a-ok with restocking (glues, papers, sealants, etc) and replacing used up tools like brushes.  Supplies for classes come from the stash first, and then the education line in the budget. Thrift and estate sale stuff I treat a lot like cooking supplies or clothes, if I know I'll use it and it's at a good price it comes home with me unless the stash has plenty of it already.

For art's sake, I improve or re-manufacture brassware.  I only buy it for less than scrap value.  

in my art school days in the city -- i went through a large "garbage art" phase -- its easier in a bigger city area, but certain times of year theres oddles of art supplies in the garbage pick up days for dumpster thriving. boston where i went to art school, is particularly good for this being the hugest college town and lots of students moving out always and leaving whatever behind.

besides just actual recognizable art supplies proper, you can find all sorts of freegan stuff. mirrors, wood boards, random metal bits, etc...i used to go out gathering and hauling my trash scores quite a lot.

Locally there is a shop that buys and sells used art supplies. These are becoming common in canadian cities with art education, but also good for kids as they have classes.  But it means almost nothing art related in the local charity shops.

For me, this year's no-buy is about space and taking the time to get to know what I already have.

I'm in. I want to clear up a lot of supplies and get back to the minimum I truly use. I haven't bought much in the past few years, but I have a huge stash

First step is probably to make an inventory of things that I don't use nearly enough, like yarn, dry pastels or fancy papers I've been carrying around for years, and use as much as possible in practical projects like thank you cards and labels for gifts, or just process/therapeutic art like junk journals.

It was too good a black friday deal to pass up.  I bought a set of six inktense pencils.

Very interesting to work with.  Like watercolours but not.  And not an easy limited palette as the colours are overwhelmingly vibrent.  

But it can paint a chicken,  and that's what matters.



In other news, I have used up some supplies.  Photos to come.

In my defense, it wasn't supposed to start the no buy until after boxing day.

K Kaba wrote:There's a lot of marketing involved with art and craft supplies, and it's easy to get caught up wanting the newest shiny thing. I don't do no-buy generally. I tend to leave "shiny" things on my list for about three months. If I still want it after that, it comes home with me. I think the last shiny I got was the kuretake granulating watercolors. They took a couple months to restock after I first wanted them, and I was still delighted to play with them when I finally could get them.

I try to hit my stash first for anything I need, and I am a-ok with restocking (glues, papers, sealants, etc) and replacing used up tools like brushes.  Supplies for classes come from the stash first, and then the education line in the budget. Thrift and estate sale stuff I treat a lot like cooking supplies or clothes, if I know I'll use it and it's at a good price it comes home with me unless the stash has plenty of it already.

I like the 3 month policy. I have a 30 day list. Everything we need to purchase goes on that list minus the things we need recurringly like food we can't grow or butcher and items needed for repairs.

Enthusiasm dies down quick in 30 days. I bet 90 days would be a better list time period.

r ranson wrote:It was too good a black friday deal to pass up.  I bought a set of six inktense pencils.

Very interesting to work with.  Like watercolours but not.  And not an easy limited palette as the colours are overwhelmingly vibrent.  

But it can paint a chicken,  and that's what matters.



In other news, I have used up some supplies.  Photos to come.

In my defense, it wasn't supposed to start the no buy until after boxing day.

Very nice. I am hoping one of our kids has some artistic talent like that. My wife sings beautifully and I have a lot if trade skills but that is a fine looking piece of art.

A bottle of refined linseed oil and my first finished tube of paint.

The winsor and newton refined linseed oil is just right.  I used it mostly for cleaning the brush during painting and for thinning stiffer paints a little.   I like this a lot and bought a backup one just before my no-buy started.  When that one gets less than half full, it will be time to get another.

The paint is winton (winsor and newton student grade oil paint) white.  This I liked less as it's very stiff and starts to dry to a sticky texture in about four hours.  But the fast drying helps when painting in class where it needs to be dry and ready to paint the next layer in a week.  Likewise,  I've got another tube when this one was half gone.  But still, white seems to get used up way too fast.  This colour seems to have really low tinting strength which makes it difficult to mix, I can't help but wonder what additives it has.

Since these are my first oil paint supplies I used up, I decided to paint a still life.



But life is busy and I only got part way before the paint got sticky.  So I took the photo and will attempt to finish it in the quiet time between Christmas and new years.

I "used up" a brush.  



more specifically, it fell apart.

These are a set of cheap brushes I got to learn oil painting on.  More specifically, to learn how to care for my oil painting brushes without solvent.   I don't know if it's the quality of the brush that failed or my cleaning style, but very quickly the bristles became different lengths, before I even did the first washing.  After about 4 months of frequent use, it decided it didn't like me anymore.

Is there any point to saving the handle?  Any uses for empty paint brush handles?


I also went shopping.  I declare this not breaking my no-buy because these are supplies needed for class.  Putting it here anyway for full disclosure.



Transparent red and yellow oxide are ones I'm always borrowing from teacher.  Love these colours and I can see the teacher is getting a bit tired of me always asking for a little dab.  I don't know anything about this brand or what grade (student, mid, or professional) of paint this is.  It wasn't in the locked cabinet, so I imagine it's not the really good stuff.  

Looking at how much linseed oil I go through, it seemed a good idea to get another one before the current one runs out (I like to have a backup).  The bigger one was the same price that I pay for the smaller one.  

When I got home, I found out that everything was 20% off or more.  I wish I had known that while I was shopping.  Or maybe not, because I would have brought home a lot of paints.

What are you doing for brush cleaning?

There's usually some sort of glue inside the ferrule that you want to avoid submerging or getting into any solvents or soaps. My first guess would be that something in that process is getting up inside there and ending that glue. If you aren't getting the area where the brush and ferrule meet in your cleaning stuffs, it might be dribbling down into there if the brushes are sitting brush end up?

K Kaba wrote:What are you doing for brush cleaning?

There's usually some sort of glue inside the ferrule that you want to avoid submerging or getting into any solvents or soaps. My first guess would be that something in that process is getting up inside there and ending that glue. If you aren't getting the area where the brush and ferrule meet in your cleaning stuffs, it might be dribbling down into there if the brushes are sitting brush end up?

The current experiment is to do an oil dip in a slow/non drying oil like safflower if I'm planning to use the brush in the next few days.  For longer term storage, I'm using murphy oil soap followed by Masters brush cleaner.  

It's one of those sets where you get 40 brushes for $2.  I use most of the brushes - trying different styles to see what I like - and this is the first of three to show slipping bristles.

The thing is, all three started slipping bristles the first time I painted with it - BEFORE I cleaned the brush for the first time.

Put all that together, I suspect a manufacture fault is most likely.

But I'm also not happy with the current cleaning method as it often (not always) leaves oil behind in the bristles.  No paint or pigment left, but still greasy which stiffens after a few weeks.   Thus the cheaper brushes to experiment on until I'm happy with the method.  

New brushes will sometimes drop a couple hairs the first time you use and clean them, but then it should stop. They shouldn't be sliding around in the ferrule becoming different lengths. That does sound like they weren't made right, maybe no glue or missed the right spot for the crimp.

But! You got 4 months of regular use on a 5 cent brush? Sign me up!

Even with the extender,  this s the last time I'll be able to sharpen this in my arthritis friendly sharpener.  I might be able to sharpen with a knife on a good day, but after today's sketching session, it will be the start of my pencil stub collection.

This is my favourite pencil for drawing these days.  It's affordable so I don't fear using it.  It's a coloured charcoal pencil by Marie's.  Not soft like a pastel, or dusty ike charcoal, but it blends well.  I use the sanguine colour the most as the value range is much closer to what I can get with watercolours than with charcoal which goes too dark.  

I have quite a stash of these from when they were 12 for $3.  They are now back up to $18 per dozen which is still half the price of local drawing pencils.  It's also one of the exceptions of my no-buy if they go on sale again.  Although now I've discovered conte...

I still like these pencils a lot as they feel better for smaller paper and conte better for larger motion.

The big thing I don't enjoy is how often I have to sharpen them, but one pencil lasted a few months of daily sketching in my a5 journal.

Little matchbox set of four conte crayons bought for a class, so not breaking my no-buy, but declaring here for um,... because i seem to do this.  Also, brain needs coffee.

r ranson wrote:I've been thinking of going on a no-buy for my hobbies starting in the new year.  

Anyone else doing a no-buy for their hobby, crafting,  or art?  What guidelines will you follow?

The whole idea gives me the Willies. even though I know it is sound advice, and I probably should do the same.
I have a semi-no-buy policy that is basically I'm not buying any more handle materials (I'm a knife maker) UNLESS they are a really good price!
I did recently buy a bunch of steel for Damascus making at the end of last year. Mostly because I anticipate the price going up if the tariffs get put in place.
I do have quite a bit of wood and stabilized wood for knife handles already on the shelf.


There is some bone and antler mixed in with all of that.
I also have a few boxes of ivory, oosik, antler, horn, and bone inside the house for the temperature-controlled environment.



For knife makers, handle material buying is an addiction.

Each piece of wood is individual.   Representing that moment in time for that living tree.  It documents the wather, and history of a place.

I can't see how limiting wood blank collection would help, unless you are running out of space.

r ranson wrote:I totally forgot my plan to buy some naples yellow oil paint.  Drat this no-buy already.   I don't actually need it yet, it just would be nice to have.

I broke down and bought it.

It's so pretty!   And fills in the missing link I need for a painting I'm working on.

r ranson wrote:

r ranson wrote:I totally forgot my plan to buy some naples yellow oil paint.  Drat this no-buy already.   I don't actually need it yet, it just would be nice to have.

I broke down and bought it.

It's so pretty!   And fills in the missing link I need for a painting I'm working on.

Money well-spent I say!

The finished painting of the used up art supplies.



One of the things I learned while doing this is that natural light changes rapidly.  I would make a mark, get more paint on the brush, observe the item and the reflections had changed that fast.  I did the best I could, but I think I'll set up some sort of still life box one day soon.  

r ranson wrote:Each piece of wood is individual.   Representing that moment in time for that living tree.  It documents the wather, and history of a place.

I can't see how limiting wood blank collection would help, unless you are running out of space.

Well, it's not space that is the issue. It's that a block of wood measuring 1.5" x 1.5" x 5" can cost anywhere from $25-$50. And don't even ask me about the mammoth ivory.

Joshua States wrote:

r ranson wrote:Each piece of wood is individual.   Representing that moment in time for that living tree.  It documents the wather, and history of a place.

I can't see how limiting wood blank collection would help, unless you are running out of space.

Well, it's not space that is the issue. It's that a block of wood measuring 1.5" x 1.5" x 5" can cost anywhere from $25-$50. And don't even ask me about the mammoth ivory.

wozers!

If you don't mind aging your own wood, you could make friends with a landscaping company and they could drop off some nice pieces.  

Another person in town advertises in UsedAnywhere for fruit tree wood for turning.

Add a shelf, age a bit more than you think you'd use, trade the extras when you shuffle stashes?

Which, thinking about it, is a good way to shake up your art supplies without necessarily buying anything. I'll swap filled paint pans and paper samples with friends sometimes, and sometimes we'll just give each other things that are perfectly fine but we just didn't like working with. My yarn and spinner friends will swap skeins and mysterious bags of fluff.

I already have more than I think I will use!
If I make 8 knives in a year, that's a lot. My typical year's work is around 4 to 6.
My high point was 10 in one year.