Hello 👋
I'm Kate ("Kaytiebug" is my online presence, you can find me pretty much everywhere with that), I've been an artist and crafter for ages watercolors for about 11 years. I'm interested in making my own watercolors out of natural ingredients, and would love some advice! I have dried herbs and soil I've collected on my travels abroad to use for pigment.
I have a basic recipe to get me started: gum arabica, honey, pigment.
Am I missing anything?
Also, I'd love to send people free pans (likely quarter size) just to give me feedback until I hone this craft, assuming you'd be willing to pay shipping. Please let me know!
The first colors I want to make will be Terra Cotta (made with soil from the Thailand Grand Canyon), and Korean Cherry Blossom.
Feel free to hit me up on insta @KaytiebugCosplay
I also recommend a glass pane and muller. (You can use any strong glass surface, even a mirror.) However, if you want to try this without going too expensive, you could find some fermentation weights with flat bottoms and try those for the first mull. Any flat glass would work too. Looking forwards to seeing your paints! :) Also I‘ve seen a few different ratios of pigment to binder but you could try 1:1 to see if that works, then once you test swatch the paint, wait until it dries then take a clean tissue and rub at it. If it comes off it needs more binder, but if it looks shiny on the paper then there’s too much binder. So I’ve heard.
Hi Kaytie!
I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about paintmaking! :)
I'd really enjoy trying your paints out! I'll send you a message there :)