Top 5 Pébéo Printmaking Products Available at Opus Art Supplies - by Molly Gray Art
- mollygrayart
- Jul 8
- 6 min read
If you're looking to try fabric printing but don't know where to start, Setacolour fabric ink is a great starting point. You can use it with a paint brush and hand paint your design, or you can create a stencil and use a sponge to create beautiful one-of-a-kind print. I've made a tutorial for stencil printing with Setacolor opaque paint which you can watch at the end of this post. I've also successfully used Setacolor (light fabrics) for screen printing, so it is a versatile and affordable place to start printing on fabric.
The fabric paint come in opaque (for printing on dark colours) and light fabrics (printing on white). The containers are small, but I assure you, a little ink goes a long way - so much so, I mention that twice in my tutorial because I'm always amazed with how far the ink goes!
If you are a printmaker, or have just started relief printing, but have been too scared to graduate from rubber to lino, give Pebeo lino a try! These lino plates come in 4 sizes: 10 x 15cm, A3, A4, and A5, and by some magic, are a little softer to carve than other linoleum brands. Pictured above is the 10 x 15cm lino. If you are just starting out or have grip strength challenges, I recommend sticking to Speedball Speedy Carve, as you need less hand pressure with rubber than lino.
Ok here's the thing - I'm still getting used to these gouges. Why? The handle is vastly different to all my other gouges and it's taking me time to adjust. When you've been carving a certain way for 10 years, and a new product comes along that's different, it simply takes time to learn how to use it. How is it different? Well, the rest of my carving gouges are palm tools, which means the handle sits in the palm of your hand and the length of the metal gouge is longer. Pébéo gouges have straight, long handles, with shorter length gouges, which allows the user to adjust their grip in more ways - you can choke up on the handle for tight, small details, and then loosen your grip and hold it near the end of the handle for a less controlled, organic carving style. You can hold it like a pencil if you find that gives you better control. What I'm saying is, this set is versatile.
They come in a set of three, with one "v" gouge for details, a small "u" gouge, and a larger "u" gouge for clearing larger areas.
*Please note that I added the carving shapes on my gouge handles(shown in photos above) so I could easily see which gouge I was grabbing, without having to look directly down the barrel. I used an acrylic marker to do this but I'm sure a sharpie would also do the trick.
Since I started printmaking in 2016, I have pretty well exclusively used Speedball 2" and 4" brayers to hand print my lino's regardless of lino size...up until Pébéo came out with their Lino line.
As far as I was concerned, Speedball was the only affordable option for brayers, as there is a HUGE price jump from a 2" Speedball brayer ($ 20 - $ 30) to say, a 2" Takach hand brayer ($ 80). Pébéo's brayers start at $30.49 for a 5cm, so it's a just a bit more expensive than Speedball's 2" brayer, but the wooden handle and slightly firmer rubber make for a noticeable difference in usability. Am I going to toss out my Speedball brayers? No way, but I do find myself reaching for my Pébéo roller more often when printing. It's slightly heavier than the Speedball brayer(which has a plastic handle) so instead of me applying pressure while rolling ink out, the roller does the heavy lifting.
If you're not on a budget, treat yourself to one of these wooden handled brayers, also available in 10cm, and 15cm - in my opinion, they're worth it. If you are on a budget, use a Michael's coupon and get yourself a Speedball brayer to start, it will work well.
Whatever Brayer you choose, here's a tip- if the rubber on your brayer starts to get a little sticky, take a little sprinkle of cornstarch and rub it into the rubber. It will be good as new!
This ink it unlike any other ink I have ever used before. It is water-based, but when fully dried(cures), it can be mixed with watercolour and will not run. Previously, this was only possible with oil-based inks. This means that printing with mixed-media just got a whole lot more eco-friendly. It took me a little while to get used to this ink because it is thinner than most inks I have used, but once you get a hang of it, it's fantastic. It has a delightful matte finish when cured. The dry time for this ranges depending on how humid your place is. For me the full dry time was about two weeks, but it was dry enough to print a second layer after 24hours.
Pictured above is the first piece in a series of French patisseries I am working on, along side one of my student's first ever relief print.
Why did I create a Top 5 about Pébéo products?
I have been using Pébéo acrylic paint since 2005 when I started my undergrad at Bishop's University in Québec. Despite it being a more affordable brand, the quality does not lack - the viscosity and pigment has always been my favourite over more expensive brands like Golden. They are a French(France, not Québec) company that has been making art supplies since1919, and recently they have got more of their product lines out west, including their newest Lino line.
How did I find out about their Lino line? Earlier this year I met Max Black - she is the North American brand ambassador/in-house artist for Pébéo. She reached out to me via email about their new Lino line, and invited me to come to a demo she was hosting at Opus Art Supplies in Langley. I 100% thought the email was a scam at first, but after checking on Opus's website, I found that it was a legitimate demonstration, and I decided to go check it out. We met, and hit it off with our shared love of art, and sharing our knowledge with the community! Max invited me to be one of her collaborating artists!
What does that actually mean?
Max sends me Pébéo products to to explore, create, and share my thoughts with all the beautiful people in my community - which is you! Going forward, I will be shifting my focus from Instagram reels, to making Youtube videos sharing how I use materials, and teach how making art is a great way to express yourself, explore, and learn new skills. You don't have to be good at it, you just need to enjoy the process! The skills will come in time. You can watch my first Youtube tutorial here:
If you enjoy this video, please consider subscribing to my channel. I have a huge list of videos that I want to make because I believe that if I can make it, so can you! These videos will feature all kinds of techniques, tools and materials, (not limited to Pébéoo products). Eventually I may even make more in-depth purchasable online courses! Who knows?
What this means for you? Thanks to Max, I have been accepted as a brand ambassador for Opus Art Supplies, which means you can use code MOLLYGRAYART at checkout at Opus Art Supplies to get 10% off your entire purchase! This code is valid once per person.
As always, if you got to the end of this post, I both appreciate you and am grateful for your time!
Stay tuned for my next video coming soon - "Painting on Fabric using Setacolor Fabric Paints with Molly Gray", and my next blog post where I share all my other favorite Pébéo products like their new Eco- Acrylic line called Origin, and their ncredibly high-pigment watercolor inks - Colorex - I'm in love with them.
Cheers,
Molly
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