A good dryer is considered to be the most important tool when working with alcohol inks. Which dryer to buy for alcohol ink art? Which is the best dryer for working with alcohol inks? Which hot air hairbrush to buy for alcohol ink art? Here's my review:
Drying tools for alcohol inks Hairdryer techniques with alcohol inks. Watch the video to see my review of the hair drying tools that I frequently use - these are from brands Panasonic, Babyliss, Nova, and Beautysonic. These are the ones available in India -
Amazon link below. There are many other similar hot air hairbrush tools from reputed brands like Panasonic (600 watts), Conair (300 watts), Babyliss (300 watts), and Revlon, that are available internationally.
Here are some things to keep in mind when you buy one:
Buy a dryer that has power lower than 600 watts.
Find one with multiple heat and pressure settings, so that you can use it according to the size of the surface.
A smaller mouth at the top makes it easy to control and work on fine things like petals and ripples.
Some hot air hair brushes have a rod running through the middle of the tool to fix the attachments. So check the reviews and detached photos of the tools to ensure that there's no rod and when you remove the brush part, it should just be left like a drying tool.
Get a tool from a reputed brand as they work for longer duration before getting heated up and stopping. Cheap brands sometimes don't work for long and keep stopping as soon as the device heats up.
My views about heat gun or embossing tools:
I mostly work on synthetic paper. These papers are extremely heat-sensitive and sometimes get warped and bent even with the lowest heat of the hair dryer.
If you find a heat gun that has a low heat setting then you can try it on paper. In my opinion, such hot tools can be used on ceramic tiles or hard surfaces, wooden boards, and any other kind of surface that is not heat sensitive.
End note:
I have used many kinds of dryers till now and I feel that most of them work. They should just not be too powerful or too hot. It's more about practice and learning to control your tool.
You can find some of the products mentioned in the video at the following link: http://www.amazon.in/shop/anujaaggarwal