Hi Everyone.

This is is my way of recycling my pastels from the dust and scrunchers. This thread is not intended for just the way I do this, but I am opening this to all of you. What are your methods of recycling your pastels dust. So please chime in with your reconstituting solutions.

Its a cold blistery day, I want to be outside painting. I can’t. So. I have decided to tackle all of the pastel dust and scrunchers that I have saved over the years and reconstitute them into new pastels.

Materials:
Pastel dust
distilled water
pane of glass
Mortar and Pestle
stiff paint brush
a couple of pallet knives
Glassine/or tracing paper
Face mask such as the Totobobo Face Mask.
Neoprene (medical) gloves

Pastel Dust: Collect dust from your paintings by placing a strip of aluminum foil along the bottom of your painting, or from the dust that you get when you unwrap, split, or break your pastels. I have dropped my plein air pochade box on several occasions, and have saved the poor pastels that got scrunched in the accident. I save them by color, if possible, in small plastic containers, or pill boxes. I have also saved the dust when I clean out my pastel boxes when they start getting dirty. I have several years of dust and small chunks. Today I made pastels !

I sorted the chunks by color then value, and placed the chips in the mortar and ground them to fine dust. I used the paintbrush to brush the ground pastel out of the mortar and off the pestle (I bought my Mortar and pestle at Bed Bath and Beyond). You may want a face mask such as the Totobobo Mask.
I brush the dust into a pile on the glass pane. I make a well in the middle of the dust to add the water. I add the distilled water a few drops at a time. Then mix with the pallet knife. A few drops,then mix, a few drops more then mix…. I continue this until I get the pastel dough to a clay like substance. I try not to add too much water. If this happens I spread it out and let it dry for 15 minutes or so until it gets to clay consistency. At this point I will roll it into a ball to shape however I want. I have made them square, round, even in triangles. I then place them on a sheet of glassine to let dry for a few days.
After I have made what I can with all the chunks, then the left over dust can be reconstituted to mix up to whatever it wants to become. It’s fun to experiment with this. I now see why Carl Kelly and Terry Ludwig love their jobs. Here is a picture showing my set up and a few of the pastels I have used.
I do not need to add binders or anything else, as the pastels already have binders. I have crossed Nupastels and Great Americans, to come up with hybrids. I’m like a mad scientist! LOL
Well have fun. Here is a pic of my set up.

Carol

I clipped an old paint brush short to have stiff bristles needed to brush out the mortar and pestle. Those are some of the pastels I made today. The spoon is to add the water (don’t have a eyedropper)