Taking care of your handmade watercolor
You bought some beautiful handmade watercolors! Yaaayyy!!
If you bought them in my store, then I want to say thank you so very much!
You might already know it is important to take good care of your handmade watercolors. Here you will find some tips on how to get the best out of your beautiful handmade watercolors.
The watercolors I make
Before I dive into some tips, I first want to tell you a little bit about the watercolors I make.
Because of my love for the earth, art and beautiful colors, I decided a few years ago that I wanted to make my own watercolors with pigments that are not toxic and a binder that consists of only natural products like gum arabic, distilled water and corn syrup.
During the production of the watercolors pigment is mulled by hand on a glass slab with a combination of gum arabic, distilled water and corn syrup. Corn syrup is added to help the paint retain water and increase their longevity.
I use no fillers or brighteners, and most of my colors are single pigment paints. With single pigments there are no surprises. And they mix beautifully with other colors. Whether a certain color is made with single or mixed pigments, is in the product information.
Although most of the used pigments are not considered toxic, you should take care when disposing paint.
Also, these paints are not suitable for children.
Tips
- Spray (or drop) a little bit of water on your watercolors and let it sit for a while before using the watercolor. This helps with activating the paint.
- Watercolors made with (gem) stones take a little bit more effort to activate.
- Same goes for watercolors made with mica. It takes a little bit longer to activate them.
- When you’re finished painting, allow some time for the watercolors to air-dry.
- Closing your tin / palette when paint is still wet creates a lovely environment for mold to grow.
- When you’re painting outside it’s absolutely no problem to close your palette so that you can transport it back home. When you’re home, open the palette so that the paint can dry.
- Did mold grow in one of your pans? Clean it with a cotton swab dipped in some pure alcohol (isopropanol can be found in most art stores). The alcohol will kill the mold. After that clean the rest of the palette as well, because the tiny lightweight spores of the mold easily travel through the air. Mold spores are usually harmless, but when they land on a damp spot in your palette, they can start to grow
Do you have any questions?
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at: coaching@simonemichiels.com
Or find me on Instagram: @simone.michiels
Lots of love,
Simone
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