Radiant Pearls

Lately, I've been enjoying some supplies that I haven't used in a while. I'm not exactly sure why I stopped using Radiant Pearls, but I'm pleased to have them out again. An interesting quality of Radiant Pearls is that they dry by absorption, so they must be used on a porous surface, or they'll stay wet forever. You can use a plastic lid or an old cd as a palette, and your paints will not dry on those surfaces. Not ever. This means that you waste less paint, and you can pick up a project where you left off, long after you last worked on it. I last used my Radiant Pearls about 5 years ago, and when I pulled out my cd palette today, the paints on it were still wet!

Another thing I like about these paints is their shimmery quality. Unfortunately, you can't see that in this photo.

Radiant Pearls are very much like watercolors. They're transparent, can be thinned with water, blended with other colors, and used as a wash. But they also have emollient properties, so they spread nicely if you're using them full-strength.

I haven't done much with Radiant Pearls beyond coloring rubber-stamped images, but I'm beginning to see the possibilities. For now, I'm still using them with rubber stamps, as in the photo above. Pictured here are some small images stamped and painted on watercolor paper, attached to mat board, and finished off along the edges with a Krylon pen. They each measure only 1 x 1-1/4 inches, so I will probably make them into pins.