TOOLS & ACCESSORIES

Palettes are the highest-turnover item — 19 products from R5, in well counts from 4 to 16 and both plastic and wooden.

Palette knives and spatulas. Dala's plastic set has five flexible-headed tools between 17cm and 19.5cm; the individual wooden-handled range runs 18cm to 24.5cm. The paint spatulas are stainless steel with plastic handles.

Cutting mats are double-sided resilient vinyl, self-healing so that cuts reseal and the surface lasts longer. A4, A3 and A2.

Manikins are artist quality, fully poseable and mounted on a stand, for figurative sketching. There is also a jointed adult-sized wooden hand model.

Easels run from a R104 mini display easel through table-top lyre easels to a full French rear-support studio easel.

Specialist tools — lino cutting rollers and sheets, pottery kits, quilling tools, etching tools, a clay slicer.

The clay slicer is made for exactly this. Dala describes it as cutting exact measurements, “making life easier for teachers and artists who want consistency in their clay portions” — fully adjustable for thickness, and it cuts straight across a slab in one pull.

Palettes are consumable in practice. They get lost and broken. Buy more than seems necessary, and the plastic ones rather than wooden for general classroom use.

Hot glue guns need a policy, not just a purchase. Dala's own warning is explicit: once heated, glue from the nozzle “is initially hot enough to burn and even blister skin.” Older classes with supervision, and the glue sets within a few seconds to a minute.

Cutting mats save desks. Self-healing vinyl outlasts card or newspaper and protects the surface underneath.