Technique & Tool: Chapter 9

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, the second project, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Rebeca Trevino


My favorite tool is my cordless drill. I used to be a big fan of glues and adhesives. Today, although I still use glue and adhesive for some things, I find that screws work best for most things. And I pre-drill everything. My favorite technique is making gel transfers and using them in my artwork.
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Trudi Sissons


An eraser.
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Roseann Cazares


The one tool I cannot live without is masking tape. I can't get enough of it!
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JoAnnA Pierotti


It would have to be a sewing machine. My mom taught me how to sew when I was a little girl. Sewing is one thing that I have been consistent with throughout my entire life thus far.
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Kim Palmer


A sewing needle! Have you ever tried to sew anything without a needle? I could make my own paints or dyes, use plant fibres as thread, but a needle. Just give me one and save us both a load of colourful language and frustration.
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Paula Bogdan


I am beginning to rely more and more on what others might term "junk." I reach for the expired credit card/gift card to spread paint or to scrape it off. Corrugated cardboard makes the neatest marks, as does the bottom of a paper cup. A piece of wallpaper used to make numerous prints becomes a journal cover. The numerous bands my husband wore during his last hospital stay become journal fodder. Everyday life's "leftovers" make for great journal pages.
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Ange


A piece of stray cardboard or balsa wood, cut at the right slant. Mmmm, no really it would have to be the basic Chinese paintbrush my calligraphy teacher gave me 3 years ago. I will shed tears when the last bristle falls out of the shaft.
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Kesha Bruce


I am addicted to black sharpie markers. I write with them, draw with them; I use them in my under-paintings. It may not be a sophisticated are tool, but I use it for everything. I love the bold black mark.
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AnTonia Griva


My brushes and color in painting and my MacBook in life.
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Alicia Caudle


This is an ever-changing response for me as I vacillate so very much in my artistic focus on any give day: assemblages, paintings, collages, altered books, sewing, etc. Looking more at my art as a whole though, I would have to say paint, I think, because I can always find objects to assemble and paper to collage. A life without paint would be ever so bland!
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, November 20th.