This isn’t going to be pretty.
I built my pastel tray with no intent of ever displaying it to the world. I put function far above style. I basically needed something to hold all my oil pastels and I refused to pay the high prices for pastel trays that the art supply stores demand.
Formcore is cheap and sturdy, PVA glue is strong, and I already had plenty of both. So I built my own pastel trays.
My Pastel Trays
I built the longer, narrower one at the top of the picture first, then decided it wasn’t big enough, nor did it group my colors the way I liked, so I built the larger one. The same simple methods were used for both, so I’ll just describe the larger one.
You’ll need 2 sheets of foamcore. Mine happened to be 3/16” thick, but there’s no reason something a bit thinner or thicker wouldn’t work.
I also used PVA glue, which is what I keep on hand for bookbinding, but I imagine that almost any decent glue that works on paper should suffice.
First, I measured my pastel sticks. I have mostly Holbeins, but also some Cray-Pas and a lot of Sennelier. I added a little to the length of the longest sticks to give them wiggle room and decided 3 1/2” was a good height for each compartment. (Although when I measured them for this blog, they varied between 3 3/4” and 3 5/8”. Precision wasn’t my goal.)
Showing the Size of One Compartment
As for the width, I think I decided to just divide the piece of foamcore in half. I was more interested in the horizontal divisions. The center vertical was an afterthought.
Using a metal ruler and a mat knife, I cut one sheet of foamcore into long 1” strips. I cut the 4 horizontal dividers plus 2 top and bottom edges all the same length, to fit within the two long vertical side edges.
I drew on the uncut sheet of foamcore where each strip would be placed, based on my measurements, then one at a time I laid down a line of PVA glue and held the piece in place just long enough for it to hold.
Corner Detail of Tray
Once the glue dries – which for PVA is fairly quick, a couple hours is plenty long – I put my oil pastels into my preferred color groups. I have had no complaints at all about my foamcore trays. They’re sturdy, stackable, moveable, and I’ve even found them handy for holding binder clips and razor blades.
Razor Blades Stuck in Edge of Tray
In fact, I imagine that if I needed to transport my oil pastels someplace, I could put another sheet of foamcore (or a mat board) over the top, use large rubber bands to sandwich it all together, and take them with me. Or, I could build a custom fitting lid out of foamcore. I could even have my daughter sew me a custom totebag, exactly the right size, to carry the whole thing with a pad of colourfix paper.
That’s a good idea. I’ll have to get that ball rolling.
