Renee, we have stepped up our ‘social media’ game’ and are having a great time offering contests, challenges and lots and lots of really terrific creative tips, techniques, videos and answers to everyone’s heartfelt questions.

Don’t forget to enter our Dicrofiber Card Contest – and, watch for the new contest entry too. http://askusaqsue.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dicrofiber-1-1-1.jpg

For instance, WE have had  fun to see our new Facebook Fans excited to win one of the beautiful watercolor palettes from USArtQuest. At least two winners are having fun too!  We will continue to do so for every 100 fans up to 1000.  At that point, someone will receive a $100 gift certificate…JUST for becoming a fan. Now how fun is that?

Hey, did you know that USAQ is the largest manufacturer of mica products for the arts and crafts industry?  We are, and although we have a variety of mica products from raw Mica Tiles to Flakes, D’lights, and Perfect Pigment Acrylic Paint, our MicaColor Watercolor is one of our favorites. We have lots of other fab products too, but mica is one of our house specialties.

Hi Laurie, I had a wonderful time in Birch Run.  The project you saw there, is one that I did on a video, so you’ll be able to watch it over and over.  The embossing ink is VersaFine (black) and the embossing powder can be either black or clear. Both can be found at your local rubber stamp, scrapbooking or craft store.

Just go to:       http://www.usartquest.com/video-holidaycard.php

Jessica, this is a technique that really launched Mica Tiles in the art and crafting, rubberstamping and scrapbooking marketplaces.  Mica Tiles can be separated into many pieces. Therefore, by means of a mechanical attachment, such as brads or eyelets, they can be reassembled.  If something is trapped inside two pieces, it is encapsulated.  Very often I use Duo or PPA Gloss to adhere pieces back together, but I’ve also used wire (Wireworks), tape (Foil it) and ribbon (through eyelets or the like.)

Here are two cards, one with a pressed rose and the other with the Japanese Maple leaves.  Both feature the encapsulation technique, or a variation of it. Either way, Mica Tiles are beautiful with natural leaves and flowers – but they are also stunning with unique postage stamps, small photos and other flat paper ephemera.

The pressed Rose

About once every year or every other year, USAQ holds various YOUniversity classes. Some are for personal development and some for more professional creative development.  This year’s graduates attended just a few weeks ago. We spent several days learning about various products from USAQ, as well as techniques, and the hows and whys of  demonstrating/teaching, and portfolio work.  From acrylic painting to watercolor, fibers to mica – every Pro built their sample book using and exploring these products.

We even went outside to collect leaves.  Most of us had to take some photos because the colors were just so beautiful. Afterwards we used PPA on them, to preserve them. These were encapsulated into mica tiles and put into their sample books.

They each made collaged textile pieces, collage cards, and so much more – it is hard to remember – but there were dozens of pieces.

Each of the Pros posed nicely. They truly are a group of professional women. It was a pleasure for Frankie and I to work with them.

Here’s P, Judy, Crystal, Deb, Susie and Barbara. There are five states represented here! Amazing! We’re already making notes for the next YOUniversity.  We’ll keep you posted.

Well Roz, we do have a lot of samples!  Many of them are displayed in various offices, the showroom and in the studio at USAQ, so that guests and customers see how our products are used.  Some samples are sold in the showroom, because we have multiples that were made for step-outs…or, we just got carried away one day. Those that are not the best, but still have value in some way or another, are sold at our warehouse sale held every other year.  And then, many of them are used for samples at shows.  These get beat-up pretty badly, so are often just thrown away when they have no more value to us.  Here in our sales office, one whole wall is covered with scrapbook pages that I made for one of the books I wrote – The Encyclopedia of Scrapbooking Tools and Techniques.  This is a photo of that wall with Julie who is typing in a new sales order.

Yes Renee. USArtQuest makes our watercolors…from scratch!  In fact, those who have known us for years, knows that we used to teach how to make them.  But, we knew that if we made them for you, we could control the ingredients and quality of the product. We began making them about 7 years ago, and continue to develop new colors and  new varieties of watercolor, even now.

It all begins in the powder room. There are buckets and buckets and boxes and boxes…as well as a few drums of beautiful raw materials.  These are the various pigments, sparkling mica pigments, as well as other dry and wet ingredients.  Each one is carefully weighed, measured, then mixed to make each color. We often make smaller batches to test colors.  

Here are a few test buckets of color, from the metallic palette line.

Palettes are made in the assembly area, and here are ‘trays’ of palettes all set out. They have received labels on the bottom and are waiting for the watercolors.

The first color has been poured and there are nine more to follow.  It is a laborious process.  We could use a more mechanized process, but we made a business decision many years ago to keep as many people employed as possible.  While we have a few real ‘tools’, the process is all handmade and hand poured.

After all the colors are poured, the trays are moved into a heat/humidity controlled room. We  weigh the palettes to find out if they are properly dried. 

After drying, they require their lid and label before casing them for shipments. This Stargazer palette is one of five different palettes made.

 To find out more about our watercolor palettes, please go to www.usartquest.com and look for projects using them, and technical sheets with lots of good info about using our watercolors. 

Thanks for the great question. I look forward to hearing more, so don’t forget to write.