Has anyone tried Joe Miller’s new easel?

[Devinjo]

Okay, I did it!! You guys are such a bad influence! I went ahead an ordered one for myself. I had such a good season selling that I am treating myself to a Christmas present!:D I will post a review after I get it!

Deborah

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[FONT=Georgia][FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode]"Those who say it cannot be done...should not interrupt the person doing it[/COLOR]" [/SIZE]

[Catwoman2]

I just received my Joe Miller easel as a Christmas gift today, and thought I’d post a quick review.

Thus far, I haven’t had a chance ot do anything more than set it up and admire it, but I think it’s beautiful! It has a lovely deep cherry finish — sort of a deep burgundy brown, if that makes any sense, and the legs have a matte black finish. There’s no shoulder strap, but the regular handle is nice and seems like it will be comfortable to hold when I carry the easel from place to place.

The easel comes with printed instructions (posted earlier in this thread,) as well as a 13 minute DVD in which Joe demonstrates how to set it up and take it back down. (The setup/takedown part of the DVD is only a few minutes long; the rest of the DVD is a nice little demonstration on painting trees in watercolor.)

Honestly, this is the simplest easel to set up, and it takes just seconds. You stand the easel on the ground the same way you’d set your briefcase on the floor, with the handle facing upward. There are no awkward wingnuts to deal with — all you do is press in on two little clips on each leg to extend them to full length, and then you press again in the other direction to lock them in place. Easy! After you extend the legs, you position them, and then you set the easel upright on the ground and finalize the positioning of the legs. And that’s it — you’re done.

There are three shelves, and they all seem quite sturdy, although I haven’t tried putting anything on them yet, so I’m just guessing about the strength. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t put a gallon jug of water or a heavy porcelain palette on any of the shelves, but most of us probably wouldn’t want to do that when painting en plein air anyway, so I think the shelves are perfectly adequate for the average watercolorist . The front shelf is a bit tinier than I would have liked, although if it were large, I’d be complaining that the big shelf made it impossible for me to reach across to my paper when I sat down to paint, so there’s just no pleasing me.

BTW, I think they may refer to the shelves as “drawers,” but they’re far too shallow to hold much of anything, so I think of them as “little shelf thingies.” (Sorry to get all technical on you! :rolleyes: )

Anyway, I’ll post more about it when I’ve had a chance to actually use the easel, but my first impression was entirely positive. The “fit and finish” is excellent, and I really like the way I can position my watercolor block at any angle I need (ok, I need to use the little wingnuts to make my adjustments, but they’re easily accessible and simple to use. (I think Joe mentioned on the DVD that you can adjust your working angle without tightening the wingnuts, but I’ve only watched the DVD once, so I can’t remember for sure about that.)

Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

Susan

[Devinjo]

I got my easel today, too. This is one awesome easel! I have several pochades and table easels but this one is going to be my favorite! It is a tidy size and will work super as an extra work station in the studio and it will be super easy to take use outside. I love that the easel part has a landscape orientation and can actually hold a full sheet (although you won’t be able to use the front shelf with the mast all the way down).
Susan described it great. It is really a beautiful box!!!!
Highly recommended!!!!:)
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Deborah

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[FONT=Georgia][FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode]"Those who say it cannot be done...should not interrupt the person doing it[/COLOR]" [/SIZE]

[Lemonhead]

Pictures please!!:D

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[Lifescapes]

Thank you, Santa! I love mine too, so much that I left it in the dining room for Christmas dinner. It is worthy! I agree with all the other comments but for me the biggies are the 4 legs and the pullout tables. How nice it will be to have surface area that isn’t doing double duty as the storage, making you remove your stuff to grab something. Oh and I set mine up while holding it in the air, easy peasy.

He who eats here must trust to fate,to please his palate and fill his plate! Sometimes there is, sometimes there ain't: I am no cook, I like to PAINT! author unknown

[Grainne]

Pictures please!!:D

Pretty please! The sale goes off Dec. 31!

Grainne

Día Beannacht Leat

[Catwoman2]

Pretty please! The sale goes off Dec. 31!

Grainne

Actually, it looks exactly like it does in the instruction page that you posted earlier in this thread. I don’t think any of my photos would give you as clear a picture as those, or the one on the Cheap Joe’s website.

I think it’s well worth the money!

Susan

[nancymae]

As promised, I will give you a review of this easel. I bought my husband this easel as he can’t use any of the other easels, for plein air or regular as he is in a wheelchair. I needed something that would be a “table like” easel, without bringing a table AND an easel with us in our travels.

I bought the cherry model. It is exquisite!! A beautiful piece of workmanship. The legs are sturdy and they fit over my hubby’s legs (which, if you are in a wheel chair, you know that your legs and feet stick out considerably). The legs are just like a tripod legs, you can adjust to fit perfectly. They fold up and down nicely and are fitted with really nice bolts so they look indestructible.

There are three drawers–one on each side (right and left) as well as in the front. The drawers are all optional use. So, if you don’t need the one in the front of the easel..that is fine..don’t pull it out. It will fit a nice watercolor folding palette though, so you can have the palette right in front of you while you are painting. All drawers have stops on them so they don’t accidentally get pulled all the way out. There is a nice sturdy hook on the side for a container of water for rinsing. My hubby hasn’t used his yet, so I don’t know the weight of things on the drawers. But, I don’t think there would be a problem.

Under the drawers in the main compartment, there is plenty of room for all your stuff–brushes, palette, tubes of paint, water containers rags. The only thing that I wish they would have had is dividers–so everything wouldn’t tossle around. But, that’s ok. It probably saves on weight. I would not recommend putting your brushes in there unprotected though (without a brush wrap or tip containers). But, I protect my brushes even in a regular bag.

The easel part is like a table top model. The easel can fit up to a half size water color sheet (per the wonderful dvd that comes with the easel). The bottom of the easel drops down (REALLY NICE FEATURE FOR A WHEEL CHAIR PERSON) Both the top and bottom anchor down the setup like a french easel–with screws to tighten.

Everything is made VERY VERY WELL!! My hubby is going to use this easel often–both inside and outside the house. I’m EXTREMELY happy with this purchase–it’s worth every penny to us. Especially him, with his life so restricted, it’s great he can paint anywhere, and anytime!!!

Hope this review helps!

Enjoy!

Nancy

"There are always flowers for those who want to see them." Matisse

My Blog--
http://nancypatterson.blogspot.com/

[Catwoman2]

Nancy, I’m so glad to hear that the easel will work for your husband!

Every time I look at my easel, I can’t believe it cost less than $200.00!

Oh, and for anyone thinking of ordering one, shipping isn’t cheap, but if you add a few things to your order to get the total up to $200.00, you’ll qualify for free shipping on your entire order, including the easel. (Not that I’m incredibly cheap about that sort of thing :rolleyes: … but I hate spending a lot on shipping when there’s a “free” option available!)

Susan

[HarvestMoon]

Nancy- can you fold the easel down and paint horizontally like on a table?

Harvest Moon 🐐

[Catwoman2]

Nancy- can you fold the easel down and paint horizontally like on a table?

I’m not Nancy, but I can answer your question for you.

Yes, you can fold the easel down so it’s flat, although you’ll still need a support behind your watercolor paper, as there’s no “table-like” surface to lay a loose sheet of paper upon.

The easel is set up so that there are several little notches which allow you to set it up at different angles, and when you close the easel for transport, you would set it in the flat position.

I hope that made sense — I’m looking right at the easel as I type this, but I’m not sure I’ve explained things correctly!

Susan

[HarvestMoon]

Susan- thanks a bunch! it is in MY shopping cart….looks pretty goat-proof to me!

Harvest Moon 🐐

[Catwoman2]

Well… I don’t know… you never can tell with those crafty goats!

I hope you like it if you buy it!

Susan

[Devinjo]

Okay, I finally have some photos posted on my blog. I was hoping to take the pictures outside but the snow won’t cooperate!:) I have to say that I really love this easel! Check out the photos here…
http://eponastudio.blogspot.com/%5B/URL%5D

Deborah

My Website,
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[FONT=Georgia][FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode]"Those who say it cannot be done...should not interrupt the person doing it[/COLOR]" [/SIZE]

[Catwoman2]

Check out the photos here…
[URL=http://eponastudio.blogspot.com/]http://eponastudio.blogspot.com/[/URL]

I love your photos, Deborah, but next time be sure to have your beautiful dog look at the camera!

Susan

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