In preparation for my upcoming trip to NYC to take a workshop with Ellen Eagle and visit my main squeeze (and by that I mean my boyfriend--although the Met is not far behind on that priority list), I've been getting some materials ready to go, the most important being my pastels. I spent about three hours dividing them, sharpening them, arranging them and moving them until I was totally ready to pack them up and take them in a ten hour bus ride.

I tried to save the shavings because I know I'll use them to make new pastels later on. I had to find a new way to pack up my pastels, rather than just keeping them in the box like I do when working in my own studio. I used an old ArtBin container (see similar here) I have, and placed thin packing foam on the bottom for my NuPastels and hand-rolled pastels (I tend to use a lot of binder when I make them). I used these nifty pastel wraps for my softer pastels, generally Rembrandts. I tried to arrange my palette by temperature, as well as hue.

It's not quite as perfect as I'd like, nor is my collection of pastels nearly as big as I'd like it to be, but traveling often means making compromises and I'm okay with that. As long as I can put them in a backpack as I'm walking the streets of NYC, I'm going to be just fine.