I must admit that I don't alway buy art materials because I NEED them. I love shimmery and shiny things and these Pear Ex pigment powders are certainly that. So they caught my eye and of course, using my Michaels coupons I had to have a set.
BUT...they sat in my closet for a really long time (as I had no idea how to use them) until I started this series on art materials and what better motivation to learn how to use a material then to write about it.
What I discovered about these Pearl Ex pigments is that there are 2 basic ways to use them along with variations.
The first one is to mix it with stuff to add shimmer to the material being mixed with it and the second is to add it to pieces of artwork to give it some sparkle and pizzaz.
Gesso
Adding some pigment powder to gesso as you see below will give your background page somewhat of a shimmer. Gesso is often used a primer for journal pages and canvases and adding some powder to it makes for a nice background. After you paint on the gesso you can even sprinkle a bit more of the powder to give it some more sparkle as I did in the fourth picture here below.
Gel Medium
Gel medium, matte medium and texture paste are often used to push through stencils to get a raised image. If you add some pigment powder to the medium then you get a much more sparkly medium. In the 2 images of the bee you will the left one is duller. That is before it dried. The shiny one on the right is how it looks when dry, much shinier.
This is another example and you can see in this large closeup how gorgeous it looks when dry.
When I finished mixing the second batch of gold pearl ex pigment powder and gel medium, I was so inspired that I wanted to something else with it besides push it through a stencil so I quickly made this design with a marker filled 2 spaces with the mixture and then ended up adding all sorts of golds and metallics through the rest of the spaces.
Embossing Powder
The bottle on the left is embossing powder and the one on the right is pigment powder. If you want to use Pearl Ex for stamping then you need to mix it with embossing poweder.
This bird image was covered with a clear embossing ink. I stamped the image onto the card stock, then sprinkled powder mixed with embossing powder over the bird image and brushed away the extra powder with a small size paintbrush.
Glue
You can use Elmers or clear glue for this. The main thing is that it needs to have a small opening so you can write with the glue. You then take a brush and some powder and pounce it onto the glue making the glue lines very shiny.
In the image below I looked through my journal to see if there was a page that could use some bling (glittery shine) and added some glue to some spots and then sprinkled some powder over it.
Here I tried to write my name and made sure to put a lot of powder on top because its hard to get it exact. I then turned over the card and tapped it onto a paper to catch the extra and then used a brush to brush away what was left.
You can also use a glue stick to get some pigment stuck to your paper if you don't need fine detail.
Glue gun
Using a glue gun I created what can look like gems by heating up the gun and dropping some drops of glue on top of my powders that were already on my craft mat. You can also do a clear drop and then add pigment to it. When dry you just peel them off and use them as embellishments.
I also tried writing with the glue gun as you can see with my Hi.
Spray Adhesive
If you look closely you can see how I laid down the butterfly stencil and then put cards around it to protect the rest of the paper from the adhesive.
I then sprayed the adhesive, lifted the stencil, waited a few minutes and brushed some powder on top.
What I learned from using Pearl Ex
I learned that it's not such an easy material to use and there is a bit of a learning curve in learning how to use it properly.
I learned that you must use a brush to take pigment from the jar and to brush it way from the image that you are adding it to.
I learned that if you try to use embossing ink without embossing powder mixed with the pigment powder then when you brush off the powder, all the powder comes off.
And I learned that just because something is glittery and shiny doesn't mean that it's going to turn out so great. 😉
Thank you!
Glad I found you! Thank you for sharing!
After reading your instructions, I am not going to use it on my card today. I can see this takes practice, and I really don’t think the effect is pretty. I purchased what appears to me to be All the colors offered by Pearl Ex! Thanks for info with photos. It helped me come to my conclusion . Sincerely, Netta H. Massey
Is my previous response offensive? I assure you it was not what I was trying to convey. If you will read my comments again, you might take notice that I was thanking the person for helping me to make my decision. I was not criticizing the person, but stating that the info with photos helped me! I had never seen results before of this technique and did not care for it, thus stating my conclusion was not to use it on my cards. I hope this clarifies my previous comments. Most sincerely, Nette H. Massey
Hi, I didn’t think your response was offensive I just hadn’t seen it..thanks for your comment
I believe you are missing a step in your stamping technique that would greatly improve your results. Whenever you use embossing powder, either with or without PearlEx, you need to heat-set it to make it permanent or it will just smear and rub off. You might want to try this technique:
1 – Use a clear embossing ink pad, such as VersaMark, to ink up your stamp evenly; stamp it onto the desired surface.
2 – While the ink is still tacky (it will stay that way for a bit), sprinkle, spoon or pour the clear embossing powder (mixed with PearlEx in this case) over the area you stamped, with a sheet of paper underneath to catch the excess and funnel it back into a container of your choosing. Flick or tap the back of your stamped image to remove any excess powder.
3 – Use a heat gun, which can be purchased fairly inexpensively at any craft store or online retailer, to set the embossed area. Before aiming it at your stamped image, turn it on and allow it to get hot for about 30 seconds.
4 – Pass the nozzle of the heat gun back and forth over the stamped image in a circular motion, keeping it a couple of inches away from the stamped surface, until you see the embossing powder begin to melt and get shiny. Don’t over-heat the areas that have already melted as the surface can become scorched. The heat will set the powder and make it permanent.
This will make for a much cleaner and more attractive stamped image. There are many step-by-step videos online about heat embossing if you are interested.
Thank you for showing us. I just got a bunch of Pearl Ex from a swap meet sort of place, and couldn’t remember what to do with it. And I LOVED seeing your results. It give me ideas. It does seem like a difficult product to use well. THANKS
Great! Enjoy playing!
They work well for calligraphy ink, too. Mix with water and gum arabic to raise your ink off the page and no smearing after dry. Nice for invitations.
I also mixed some with gum arabic in white paint for my bathroom wall color. The grey lavender matched my glass accent tile perfectly.
I, too, am happy to find this tutorial. My powders have been sitting in their jars for a long time. I am so excited to use these today. Many ideas are cropping in my brain.
Interesting. I’ve had my pigments for a couple of years now. I’ll try some of your techniques in the New Year. Thanks for your help. Eddie