Dotting

Hints & Tips

DOTTING TOOLS

You can use many items from round the house to make different size dots, e.g. the rubber end of a pencil, the end of a crochet hook, cotton buds, cocktail sticks. It isn’t necessary to spend money on a set of dotting tools while you experiment with dot art.

However, as with most crafts, the best results will be achieved with the use of good tools. There are so many dotting tools on the market it can be quite confusing, but they can be narrowed down to three types.

Acrylic Rods – Sets are available in a variety of colour ways, but will usually contain the same 8 sizes 15/12/10/8/6/5/4/3 mm. They will make perfect dots, but the sizes are limited.

Ball Tools or Ball Stylus – Mostly sold in sets of 5, in a variety of colour ways. Sizes 2.5/2/1.5/1/0.5 mm. Also used in nail-art and paper crafting. These make the best flourishes of graded dots, even if you have acquired the more expensive sets of specialist dotting tools, you will still need these.

Both the Acrylic Rods and Ball Tools together make a good quality and affordable set of dotting tools.

Double ended plastic dotting tools – These are made by a few specialist suppliers, with varying price tags. They have been designed to deliver a wider range of dot sizes with 0.5mm variances. I bought a set of these from DIY Mandala Stones in Canada over 5 years ago and I can’t fault them, they are still available and so worth the price.

CLEANING

Whatever dotting tools you use, look after them well and keep them as clean as possible. Wipe with a paper towel before you change colours or lay them down, and use a wet wipe at the end of a dotting session to clean away any paint residue.

The photos above are of my own tools, which have been in regular use for many years.

STENCILS

If you want to make mandalas that start and finish in a perfect circle, then this is the way to go. Lay the stencil over your project and draw through it with a chalk pencil. Use these guidelines to place your dots uniformly. When the piece is finished and the paint is dry, the chalk marks can be wiped away with a damp cloth.

Stencils are cut from thin semi opaque plastic sheet, and are usually made in three different mandala segment sizes: 16/12/8 points. Available online from many suppliers, but be mindful that they don’t always arrive as you had expected! I have received instead pretty flower designs, swirls and circles, which are fine for stencilling walls but not for marking out a mandala for dotting. Also beware the very cheap ones, they often don’t have a centre point hole and come out much bigger than expected – useless for small projects.

VARNISH

Acrylic paints dry very hard and don’t actually need to be protected when used on a canvas. However, if the piece will have a practical use, e.g. trinket bowl, placemat or coaster, then it is recommended to protect it with two or three layers of clear polyurethane varnish, e.g Rust-oleum. Gloss varnish gives a superb professional finish, but will stick to hot cups and plates, so a Matte or Satin finish is best on those pieces.

Please note that artist quality varnishes e.g. Winsor & Newton Galeria, or Liquitex, are not suitable for acrylic dot art, they remain tacky to the touch and are not hardwearing.

SURFACE PREPARATION

Blank wooden shapes, either solid wood, plywood or MDF can all be covered with Gesso prior to decorating. Gesso is an acrylic primer paint, with added chalk powder, which prevents paint from bleeding or seeping. It creates a smooth surface for dotting, but this can’t be achieved in one coat!

Cover the surface evenly with Gesso and leave to dry. This will raise the grain of the wood, making the surface very rough and uneven. Do not be tempted to use sandpaper to smooth out the peaks, it makes too much dust and removes most of the gesso as well. Much simpler to use a rolled up microfibre cloth and rub over the piece until smooth. This dislodges the raised fragments only, and the dust is minimal.

Then repaint with Gesso, leave to dry and rub again, but more gently this time, just to make a smooth finish. Repeat on all sides that will be visible or decorated. Then it’s ready to go.

You will be able to lay down perfectly circular dots.

ACRYLIC PAINTS

We are so fortunate that in the world of crafting there are numerous good makes of painting materials. Most craft (not artist) Acrylic Paints will be suitable for dot art, and the two best brands that I use are the DecoArt Americana range, and Pebeo Acrylic Paint. These come in handy 59ml (2fl.oz.) pots, and you can use them straight from the pot. Shake them well, take off the lid and there is your paint ready for dipping.

MICA PAINTS

Pebeo have a super range of Pearl paints, with heaps of mica in them. Shake them well before use.

Big tip, especially the Gold pearl paint, they do release some mica powder when wiped with a cloth, even when dry for weeks. So I recommend a coat of varnish to make them sound.

DecoArt’s range is Dazzling Metallics, they also have a super range of colours. They seem to hold their mica well, though I would still recommend a coat of varnish to be sure.

Pebeo paints are easily available from Hobbycraft stores. DecoArt is more often an online purchase, and it’s worth downloading their colour charts because they have a vast range of colours.

Hobbycraft make their own version of craft acrylic paints, in really good colours too, but I do find them quite chalky, and they tend to dry with a lumpy finish.

CLAY BRANDS

I have tried quite a few brands of clay and had successes and failures with them all. I suspect all clayers have similar experiences, that’s how you find your own favourites.

Fimo Soft is exactly what it says, it is soft to work with straight from the packet, but soft clays do not usually cure with a lot of strength. It’s great for covering jars or pens, and small jewellery pieces, but not very sturdy for a bowl. However, because it is so easy to find in local hobby shops, and comes in such an irresistible range of colours, the projects on the table frequently lean towards its good points!

Fimo Professional is firmer to condition and work with but cures reasonably hard. It will hold its form well for small delicate pieces. Not such a good colour range as Soft, but easily available. Very useful as a firm backing for Fimo Soft pieces, because they both cure at the same temperature.

Sculpy Premo is a good all rounder, it’s reasonably easy to condition and mix colours, and bakes hard. The colour range is quite good too. It holds its form well when used with texture mats. Very popular with professional polymer clay artists.

Clay

CONDITIONING

Sounds complicated, but basically means that polymer clay needs to be ‘woken up’ before working with it. Lots of rolling, folding, rolling again until it can be folded and stretched without breaking.

My best tip is to look on the internet, there are so many useful videos on the subject.

CURING/BAKING

Different clay brands have different baking/curing instructions. Most of my failures were due to the oven not reaching a high enough temperature, or the curing time was too short, or the clay was not conditioned properly before baking.

Polymer clay will need to reach the required temperature for the whole length of time in order to harden, so if it is put into a cold oven, start timing once it has reached the desired temperature.

Ovens tend to have high peaks in temperature during baking, so to avoid scorching your work, cover it with a foil ‘tent’ beforehand.

Pardo Translucent is one of the best brands for non-yellowing translucent clays. I haven’t tried the regular colour range, but can wholeheartedly recommend their translucent range for things like lace canes and overlaid flower slabs.