I have a collection of cruets. Only a few matches in the bunch. This is one of my favorites.

I do learn things from the internet from time to time and found several painters who have a still life set up made from a cardboard box with one side cut out of it. Some have two sides out and I may move to that if lighting becomes an issue. In this case, I cut out one side and put black paper on the back “wall” and purple paper on the “tabletop” and topped that off with a sheet of glass so I could get some reflections. The spot light was aimed into the box opening from my front/left side.

Did this one on one of those little 6X6 paper boards that I added gesso and pumice and black acrylic paint to make a dark, sanded board. It grips the pastel very well and I never had to go back and hit it with workable fixative. Of course, in this case I was not building twenty layers of pastel… but in spots there are four, five or maybe six.