Making our handmade paint is a very labour intensive process. That process includes making our own binder, hand mulling the pigments, and then pouring the paint into our pans. This process from start to finish will take 2-3 weeks for every pan. We make our paint in small batches so that every pan of colour gets an extraordinary amount of care and attention to ensure that is the premium paint that we strive for. We feel very strongly though that, no matter how hard we work, if we do not use quality ingredients then we will not get quality results. This is one of the reasons why we use nothing but top quality ingredients. Once you have tried our paint, we are sure you will understand why we go to this level of detail and effort.
That starts with our binder. The binder found in all watercolour paints is the foundation. The binder is responsible for a couple of very important tasks. It is responsible for allowing the paint to stick to the paper. It is also responsible for holding or suspending the pigment which provides the beautiful colours.
The paint making process starts with the binder. The binder is responsible for two things. It will allow for the suspension
We make our own binder in house using two ingredients - locally produced wildflower honey, and the world’s finest gum arabic.
Gum arabic, hardened sap harvested from acacia trees, is the traditional binder for watercolour paint. The gum arabic is crushed and ground by hand here at the shop in a labour intensive process before we make our binder. Once the gum arabic is prepared, we combine it with distilled water and honey. Combined, these two ingredients result in a binder that is free from additives and fillers, ensuring the purest painting experience possible.
Why honey? Honey allows for high pigment loads, and an incredibly smooth application. The combination of gum arabic and honey result in a binder that is free from additives and filler, allowing for the purest painting experience possible.
Upon the completion of a batch of binder, pigment is added and dispersed within it in a process we refer to as mulling. We mull our paint by hand, a technique that evenly distributes pigment particles throughout the binder. Our watercolour is poured by hand in a process that can take up to a month from start to finish, and, upon completion, become the pans of Stoneground paint you find in shops across North America.
The pigments we use in our watercolours are sourced from around the world, and our paints are created from single pigments. Single pigment paints contain only one pigment that is then combined with binder to make paint.
