Other Tools
that might come in handy

1. Fixative. This is not neccessary. CP is not like pastel dust, it will not fall off the paper. It is actually quite hard to smudge it. I use fixative in three situations. The first is if I am sending something through the post, I spray it before wrapping it. The second is, if you have just about used up the tooth of the paper and the pencil skids, then spraying can give you enough tooth to get another layer on. The third use is if you do get something called wax bloom, where a thin white powdery layer of wax "floats" to the surface over a period of days. This can be just wiped off with a tissue, but some artists prefer to give 2-4 cats of fixative. But beware, spraying may alter some colours - test it first. I use this Winsor & Newton fixative. Others are available. One with a UV stabiliser could help preserve the picture, if you can find one.

2. This is a drafting brush. This is not a feather - well, OK it is. Why? Because it is a lot cheaper than a drafting brush. Use it to clean pencil debris off your work before it embeds itself in the paper.

3. An erasing shield. Very thin metal, used for erasing small areas through it, especially with a battery operated eraser.

Many thanks to Patricia Brady of Hemel Hempstead for sending me a useful tool which I had seen also from a lady called Pauline(?) on one of my courses - the Pergamano Parchment Embossing tool is super for impressed line - much better than the knitting needle I usually use. Lately I have used a similar tool with two ends, one large and the other small, also available from Hobbycraft or other sellers of Parchment Craft tools. This is ideal for impressing a white line into the paper - when you put cp on top it skips over the valley created, and is the only real way of producing a clean white line against a dark bakground. Especially useful for whiskers on kittens (not so much for raindrops on roses!)