Supplies
At St Elizabeth Icon Studio we believe that high-quality supplies are critical to successful icon painting. We sell only the supplies that we ourselves use in our own work. Information for ordering is in the links below.
Pigment Kits and Pigments
PIGMENT KITS: Pigment Kits from St. Elizabeth Icon Studio have been developed especially for Students of the Prosopon School of Iconology. Our pigment kits are based on the premise that icon painters need a variety of pigments available to them in a reasonably compact space and that these pigments should be easy to transport to workshops or other painting sites. With that in mind, all our pigments are packaged in half-ounce screw-top jars that are easy to open and compact to store. Dry pigments go a long way, and a half-ounce jar of dry pigment will take us through painting many icons.
INDIVIDUAL PIGMENTS: We purchase pigments in bulk for our pigment kits from various pigment companies in the USA and Europe. We have those pigments and more available for sale in individual half-ounce jars. In addition to the pigments contained in our kits, we have other synthetic and natural pigments, including some of the more expensive lead-based pigments and precious minerals. The amount of pigment in the half-ounce jars varies according to the density, weight, and cost of the pigment. Some of the precious minerals and lead-based pigments are sold in smaller quantities to make them more affordable.
BOXES & JARS: We also have available the various components of our kits: the empty leatherette boxes with liners and the empty half-ounce jars that fit in the liners. This enables students who already have pigments to easily convert their pigments to our system. The
order form for
pigments, brushes, and miscellaneous items (pdf) lists current prices.
Full-size pigment kit
The cost of the Full-Size Pigment Kit is $225.00, plus $25 shipping and handling. This kit consists of 50 different pigments in half-ounce plastic jars in a black leatherette box, along with an 8-page informational booklet about the pigments . This kit contains all the pigments needed to complete our Intermediate Level Project Classes.
Basic Pigment Kit
The cost of our Basic Pigment Kit is $95.00, plus $15 shipping and handling. This kit consists of 27 half-portions of the most basic pigments, in half-ounce jars in a white cardboard box, along with the 8-page informational booklet. This kit contains all the pigments needed to complete our Paint Mixing Class and our Beginning Series Classes.
Brushes
Good brushes are the most important tools the iconographer uses. We recommend the German-made DA VINCI brush line, which we believe are the finest brushes available today for painting icons. Below are descriptions of the various brushes that we use in our work, along with explanations of how they are used.
Kolinsky Sable Brushes
For painting details and highlights, we use a tapered kolinsky sable brush with an excellent point. Our choice is the
DaVinci Maestro 35 brush series, which are some of the finest brushes we have ever worked with. The all purpose size is the #00 or #0. These brushes can also be used as liner brushes.
Squirrel Brushes
For painting roskrish and for floats, we use a pointed squirrel brush, the softest of the brushes. Our choice is the
DaVinci Petit Gris 5590 squirrel brush. The all-purpose size is the #3 or #4. We also recommend smaller and larger sizes to complete the set. The #8 is good for egg washes.
liner brushes
For line work, our brushes are the synthetic Princeton Mini-Liners, the 3050L #20/0 (longer hair) or the 3050M #20/0 (slightly shorter hair). We also use the DaVinci Maestro 35 #000 for fine line work and the DaVinci Maestro 35 #00 for broad lines. For very long lines, we use a DaVinci Cosmotop 1280 #0 long liner brush.
miscellaneous brushes
MIXING BRUSHES: We use a stiff boar bristle round brush, similar to a stencil brush. We buy inexpensive round bristle brushes, saw off the long handles, and cut the bristles to the perfect length. It’s good to have several mixing brushes on hand.
CORRECTION BRUSHES: There are times in our work when corrections must be made, and the best brushes to use are round synthetic brushes, size #2 or #4.
EGG WASH BRUSH: Finally, there are times when we apply egg washes to our icons. We have an inexpensive soft Egg Wash Brush, which can also be used in gilding to brush the gold off the icon. The larger squirrel brushes #6 and #8 are also good for applying egg washes and floats to large areas.
miscellaneous supplies
We use a STYLUS with a metal ball point at each end to transfer our drawings to the board and to transfer a decorative design to a gilded halo. We use an ETCHING TOOL to etch the design into gesso. After painting roskrish, we like to use a SEA SILK SPONGE to brush grit off our boards. We use a small ceramic MORTAR AND PESTLE to grind our pigments. We use a GLASS STIRRING ROD to grind pigments in palettes. We use a PLASTIC PALETTE with 6 wells for most of our painting. We sometimes use a rectangular CERAMIC PALETTE with 5 wells and slanted planes for line work and highlights. PIPETTES add measured drops of water or egg to our paint mixtures.
Beginning brush set
Our recommended BEGINNING BRUSH SET consists of 5 brushes: DaVinci Petit Gris 5590 #3 squirrel brush, #00 DaVinci Maestro 35 Kolinsky Sable Brush, 3050 L or M liner, a synthetic correction brush, and a mixing brush. With these brushes, our beginners can paint all of the icons in our beginning level classes, plus many more. Advanced painters will gradually expand their collection to a typical maximum of 20 brushes.
BASIC SUPPLIES KIT
The basic supplies needed for our Beginning Project Classes (in addition to the supplies students receive in their Paint Mixing Class): a Princeton liner brush, a DaVinci kolinsky sable brush, an etching tool, a stylus, a sea silk sponge, a bubble palette and two pipettes. This is a one-time purchase for new beginners.
gilding supplies
Our gold of choice is ITALIAN OR GERMAN SURFACE GOLD, (LOOSE)
23 OR
24 KT. For the convenience of our students, we have assembled a GILDING KIT that contains the following supplies: one book of GOLD LEAF, a ball-tipped STYLUS, 2 BRUSHES for applying the clay bole, one BRUSH for removing the gold leaf, an AGATE ROCK for burnishing the clay, and an AGATE PENCIL BURNISHER for burnishing the gold. All these supplies are also available separately.
We order CLAY BOLE from Dmitri Andreyev through his website dmitriandreyeviconography.com
Icon Boards
Our studio presently imports all of our icon boards from Eastern Europe. Our boards are made of linden wood with recessed oak braces, which makes for a lighter, easier-to-handle board. The gesso for our boards is composed of a special recipe of rabbit skin glue, chalk, and marble dust, formulated to serve the needs of Prosopon School painters.
We carry both flat boards and boards with kovchegs, both rectangular and round-top boards, and several custom shapes and sizes made especially for our studio. Our boards are all hand-made according to our custom orders, and it takes 2 to 3 months for us to receive each order. We make a special effort to keep in stock the sizes that our students most need, as well as the boards that are used in our tutorial packets and our classes. Our price list is revised periodically to reflect our current stock. Prices may change if the costs of production change.