We’ve put together a handy guide to help you find the right creative accessories for your project. From sculpting to painting, let’s dive into the many tools you can use to create different effects and techniques.
Sculpture projects
When it comes to clay, using tools is useful for modelling and moulding. Clay needs to be conditioned, shaped, levelled, smoothed, and more during the sculpting process. Here are some of the different accessories you can use to save your hands and make clay creations easier.
Polymer Clay Press
Using a clay press allows you to make range of marbling and blending effects. Equipped with 9 settings, the press can be used to condition clay, create flat sheets, and achieve a variety of blending effects. It’s simple to use with minimal mess and is easy to clean up. To keep it securely in place, it comes complete with a table clamp.
Polymer Clay Rollers
- Standard: This clay rolling pin features a sturdy design that’s smooth and transparent for easy use and cleaning, plus it gives you a view of what’s happening underneath as you work. It lends a helping hand in conditioning and levelling polymer, modelling, and air dry clay for even slabs.
- Levelling: This handy clay rolling pin includes three colour-coded band sets from 1 – 6mm (0.04 – 0.24in) to get you an accurate level slab every time. It’s suitable for use with polymer, modelling, and air dry clays.
- Textured: This pack comes with two sturdy embossed rollers with different designs for easy use and cleaning. Roll them over conditioned clay to imprint the embossed texture, quick and easy!
Polymer Clay Press Moulds
Make 3D clay designs with ease using our Polymer Clay Double Sided Press Mould. All it takes is four easy steps, just put your clay inside the mould, press together, trim the excess clay, and pop out your newly created shape.
Polymer Clay Cutters
Inside our Polymer Clay Cutters set are ten different clay shape cutters, great for polymer and air dry clay projects. They’re easy to use; simply press them into clay for neat edges and sharp cuts.
We also have a Polymer Clay Hole Punch Set which can be used to cut different sized holes into your polymer and air dry clay. The set includes 16 hole punch sizes, ranging from 1mm to 10mm.
Polymer Clay Flexible Knife Set
Try using the three flexible blades for a variety of slices: straight, curved and zig zag. The stainless-steel sculpting blades are thin and sharp to easily glide through clay for precise, clean cuts.
Pottery Banding Wheel
Our Signature Pottery Banding Wheel features smooth turning so that you can hand build and decorate your 3D projects without a hitch. This way, you can stay seated and avoid physically moving around your sculpture, turning it to face you instead!
Clay Tools
We have stacks of differently sized and shaped tools that you can use for finer details, carving, and smoothing out your clay. These come in sets, so you have a selection of accessories at your disposal. Some have metal tips for sharp lines, and others have rounded edges for smoothing effects. Explore the range and find the best fit for you!
General crafting
For the crafters out there, we’ve got a couple of blades that will make precision paper crafting and clay shaping super simple.
Hobby Knife Set
Our Hobby Knife Set contains three handles (heavy duty, medium, and standard use) and 13 interchangeable blades. It’s ideal for cutting a wide variety of materials including cardboard, fabric, leather, malleable clay, and plastic.
Precision Craft Knife
This set includes a durable aluminum knife body, three precision blades, a safety cap, and a carry case. Use the blades to create precise cuts in cardboard, paper, soft wood, malleable clay, and more.
Dry media
Elevate your sketches by using the right tools. From blending to fine lines, we’ve got you covered!
Pastel & Charcoal Blenders
Our Charcoal and Pastel Blenders set comes with 7 different sized tools for soft, subtle shading effects. Use the 4 paper stumps and 3 paper tortillons to transition your shadows, mid-tones, and light tones for smooth and realistic blending.
Drawing Mannequins
We have two different full body Manikins to choose from so you can get used to sketching anatomy and figures. Position the mannequin in the pose you want to sketch and draw the proportions and angles from life.
We also have a Hand Manikin that’s ideal for learning to draw hands. Repositioning the fingers and sketching the hand in different poses is a great way to get confident with hand anatomy.
Sharpeners
When it comes to using Graphite and Coloured Pencils, you’re going to want to keep a sharpener on hand to get pointed tips easily. We have both Traditional and Mechanical Sharpeners to choose from so you can find the style that suits you. You can also use our Hobby Knife Set to gently sharpen fragile dry mediums, like Charcoal and Pastel Pencils.
Erasers
Erasers can do more than just rub out mistakes – they can add depth, dimension, and highlights to your sketches!
- Traditional Erasers: Our Artists Erasers are the kind most people have used before, but in a larger range of colours and densities. Choose from Super Soft, Medium, Hard, and Black so you can find the best fit for your medium of choice.
- Electric Eraser: Make adding fine line highlights and clean edges simple with an Electric Eraser. They come with batteries and 30 eraser refills, so you’re set to create right away.
- Kneadable Eraser: This is an essential tool for charcoal, pastel and sketch artists. You can mould the eraser into loads of shapes and sizes for precise lifting, and it’s gentle so it won’t damage your page.
- Eraser Pencils: If you’re after precise lines and highlights, our Eraser Pencils are here to help. Featuring a 4mm white eraser strip inside the pencil body there's an eraser at one end and a taklon brush at the other to sweep away any leftover rubbings.
Wet media
When it comes to paints and inks, there’s a couple of handy tools you can use to make creating easier.
Colour Wheel
Get a strong understanding of colour mixing by keeping a Colour Wheel on hand! The wheel allows you to select a colour, line it up with another colour and see what happens when you mix them together. It also teaches you the difference between primary colours, secondary colours, tertiary colours, hue, value, and intensity.
Texture Combs
Drag Texture Combs over thick paint to indent designs and linework with ease. The pack comes with four combs that can create four different texture patterns.
Pouring Cups
Make your Acrylic Pouring simpler with split pouring cups. We have two varieties you can choose between, so your pouring paints combine and layer for interesting effects as you pour them onto the canvas.
Adhesive Eraser
If you’re into Watercolour and Inks, you may be familiar with using Masking Fluid. This is a medium that acts as a peelable blocker, so you can keep masked areas pristine while layering paint. Adhesive Erasers are great for removing Masking Fluid or dried glues from your art surface, picking up the sticky residue with ease.
Palette Knives
Using palette knives is great for mixing colours and applying paint thickly to your canvas. Use the edges to create clean lines and texture, or the flat surface to smooth paint and mix colours.
Now you’ve had a run down on our key creative tools and accessories, you’re ready to take on anything from sculpting to drawing. Let us know which tool is your fave by tagging us on Instagram or Facebook @montmarteart or use #montmarteart.
Looking for art lessons and techniques? Explore our Tips & Techniques collection, or else browse Projects for your next big idea.
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