About Us

 

Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to visit with me! :) 

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My name is Rebecca. My dear hubby, Jason, and I love living in beautiful Nova Scotia. We both have a real affection for the outdoors and enjoy taking the time to examine creation, big or small. Colour has a special draw for me (as I'm sure you know by now!), and I very much enjoy nature journaling and sketching outside. I tend to zoom right in and take the time to get to know a single leaf, a miniature flower, or a tiny bug. Oh! Hello there little fella! :) I think of it as the macro photography artist mentality. lol

Starting this journey...

As we live in a very rural area, sometimes getting art supplies was a bit tricky. Well, getting the ones I wanted, that is. And so I began the journey of making my own watercolours - sourcing the right pigments and what I wanted in my binder recipe... I can honestly say, it was not all roses. Getting some of those ratios and colour recipes correct took a LOT of effort! Lots of trials and lots of errors! I remember wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into. My sweet husband was my captive test audience and a wonderful sounding board (he still is, actually...).

But, with encouragement from family and friends, I just kept at it until I started making paints I was pleased to add to my own palette. 

My paints

All of my handmade watercolours are mulled in small batches by little old me. Then they are poured in the pans in several layers (from 5 to 8). Each layer must dry well before the next is mulled and poured. This process can take several weeksAll of my paint is poured fresh. I never store paint over in bottles or syringes to pour another layer in the future.

These paints contain NO fillers, extenders, or glycerin. Just boatloads of pigment mixed with my own binder and honey.

Why honey?

I use honey in my paints because I prefer paints that are easily activated in the pan and that do NOT require pre-wetting or scrubbing. Some of them will be slightly sticky to the touch, but will continue to dry over time, slowly. I find it helpful to allow my paints to dry well before I put them away. If I use them outdoors on a sketching adventure, I just leave my palette partially open when I get home to allow a little air circulation. We live in a fairly humid location here in the Maritimes, and I never have a problem. Using your paints is the best way to care for them!

Professional pigments:

As an artist, I wanted handmade watercolours made from pigments I actually prefer to work with, so some of my pigment choices create beautiful paint, but can be really tough pigments to mull. However, I feel that it’s worth the effort, and I really love painting with my own paints. I hope you will enjoy them as well. 

A note about appearance:

Handmade watercolours will not look like commercially made pans. They may have some tiny bubbles sometimes or develop a crack, and while this looks a bit odd, it doesn’t change the performance of the paint. My chief focus is truly on the way the paint behaves on paper, not the way it looks in the pan, so I avoid fixing the looks at the cost of the behaviour. It’s just not worth it to me to have a beautiful looking pan that looks dreadful on paper. Ugh.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading, and happy painting!!