Materials for Art and Crafting
We have a searchable Question and Answer file that includes answers to technical questions we've been asked from 2016 to 2022. It is a searchable resource:
https://bit.ly/Q-and-A_northernweststuff
Our stand-alone Blog has posts from 2020 to present day:
https://northernweststuffblog.com
We have this dot com store you're viewing now, an independant Blog, and an Etsy shop. Our online Etsy shop has been in business since 2016, and to date has over 24,400 sales and 4,470 reviews. We have over 350 items for sale in our stores, ranging from the common to the exotic (paper mache to pigments to power plant repurposed coal slag). We love offering those obscure and old school materials that are hard to find (ex: green vitriol aka copperas and sulfur used for inlay in the "niello" process developed by the ancient Egyptians).
Our experience is broadest in the sculptural arts and so our materials skew towards items used in sculpture, which is the discipline that uses the broadest range of materials. Sculpture can include just about anything including the kitchen sink (Mike Helbing's Chicago "Mike's Pan Tree" sculpture), to a bicycle seat from that most famous of artists, Pablo Picasso (his 1942 Bull Head sculpture which uses a bicycle seat for the bull's head and handlebars for the horns).
We do have materials for 2-D artists, from raw pigment powders to mediums, and ingredients for sizing, primer, gesso and ground. They are made from materials like linseed oil, rabbit skin glue, chalk (calcium carbonate), and terra alba (gypsum), all in use by oil painters for centuries.
We are oldsters (!), having long term experience with the arts spanning over 50 years. We've tried many materials and processes over the years and have first hand experience with a large amount of what we sell. We welcome questions and answer as honestly as we can based on our experience and the use of that new-fangled tool, the internet, (to fill in details and refresh our memories when answering questions).
We provide a generous amount of detailed information about our products in our item description articles with information pulled from a number of sources all summarized in one convenient location. We include instructions for single use products, tips, safety data, origins, and history. Disciplines we have materials for include jewelry, sculpture, painting, mold making, casting, and general crafts. They include materials like: metals, ceramics, plastics, cements, plasters, waxes, pigments, fillers, coatings, reinforcements, and other "oddball" materials.
One of the founding principles for our store was to offer materials in small sizes, to enable starving artists to try out materials in sample quantities at low prices before buying large quantities. So, they can afford to test more materials. That purpose is still in effect today but we now have a selection of items that are available in larger quantities and we offer custom ordering for larger quantities we don't stock.
We emphasize customer service by shipping quickly and keeping customers informed about their orders. We always send an order confirmation that tells exactly when an order will be shipped. We have an inventory control system that allows us to ship most orders the same day. Orders placed late in the day are shipped the following day. We provide shipping rebates when applicable soon after customers place their orders.
Whether you purchase from us or not, we hope you have a good experience visiting our shop!
https://bit.ly/Q-and-A_northernweststuff
Our stand-alone Blog has posts from 2020 to present day:
https://northernweststuffblog.com
We have this dot com store you're viewing now, an independant Blog, and an Etsy shop. Our online Etsy shop has been in business since 2016, and to date has over 24,400 sales and 4,470 reviews. We have over 350 items for sale in our stores, ranging from the common to the exotic (paper mache to pigments to power plant repurposed coal slag). We love offering those obscure and old school materials that are hard to find (ex: green vitriol aka copperas and sulfur used for inlay in the "niello" process developed by the ancient Egyptians).
Our experience is broadest in the sculptural arts and so our materials skew towards items used in sculpture, which is the discipline that uses the broadest range of materials. Sculpture can include just about anything including the kitchen sink (Mike Helbing's Chicago "Mike's Pan Tree" sculpture), to a bicycle seat from that most famous of artists, Pablo Picasso (his 1942 Bull Head sculpture which uses a bicycle seat for the bull's head and handlebars for the horns).
We do have materials for 2-D artists, from raw pigment powders to mediums, and ingredients for sizing, primer, gesso and ground. They are made from materials like linseed oil, rabbit skin glue, chalk (calcium carbonate), and terra alba (gypsum), all in use by oil painters for centuries.
We are oldsters (!), having long term experience with the arts spanning over 50 years. We've tried many materials and processes over the years and have first hand experience with a large amount of what we sell. We welcome questions and answer as honestly as we can based on our experience and the use of that new-fangled tool, the internet, (to fill in details and refresh our memories when answering questions).
We provide a generous amount of detailed information about our products in our item description articles with information pulled from a number of sources all summarized in one convenient location. We include instructions for single use products, tips, safety data, origins, and history. Disciplines we have materials for include jewelry, sculpture, painting, mold making, casting, and general crafts. They include materials like: metals, ceramics, plastics, cements, plasters, waxes, pigments, fillers, coatings, reinforcements, and other "oddball" materials.
One of the founding principles for our store was to offer materials in small sizes, to enable starving artists to try out materials in sample quantities at low prices before buying large quantities. So, they can afford to test more materials. That purpose is still in effect today but we now have a selection of items that are available in larger quantities and we offer custom ordering for larger quantities we don't stock.
We emphasize customer service by shipping quickly and keeping customers informed about their orders. We always send an order confirmation that tells exactly when an order will be shipped. We have an inventory control system that allows us to ship most orders the same day. Orders placed late in the day are shipped the following day. We provide shipping rebates when applicable soon after customers place their orders.
Whether you purchase from us or not, we hope you have a good experience visiting our shop!
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