This section is devoted to all types of pigments and powders, which include pastels, mica powders and corn starch. What are pastels?
• Pastels are a type of chalk-like pigment that’s been compressed into a little stick. It’s almost like having a cross between colored pencils and chalk. Pastels come in my different brands and textures ranging from soft to hard and chalk to oil. Contrary to what the name suggests, pastels are not all pastel-colored (i.e. light colored). They do come in dark pigments as well as light pigments. For the purposes of coloring clay, you really should get just the regular sets and try to stay away from the lighter “pastel” sets. This is because you can always mix less pastels into white clay to get a lighter color, but you cannot mix more light-colored pastels into the clay to make it darker! Also, I have not tried coloring the clay with either hard or oil pastels, but from what I’ve read, it is best to use chalk pastels. Oil pastels and the hard pastels tend to come off as chunks and shavings rather than powder pigments.
