My pigment collection grows

The last few days have called for a weather intermission , we have been incredibly lucky so far but it has become very chilly and a little wet  just now so the last few locations of the tour are on hold until we get a good day again,  but iv'e taken to the studio to examine all my finds  and yes ... iv'e made some paint . 

I am completely delighted and somewhat overwhelmed by the variety of colours i have collected from around the island , i never imagined this would be the case because of the amount of extremly hard granite and quartz we have here but the edges of our coastline are brimming with beautiful hues and i have now learnt a gret deal about what clues to look for whilst searching them out . 

I used the pestle and mortar to grind down each of the materials , some were very soft and easy to break down whilst others that were more rocky in nature needed a bit more rough handling before i got get them into a powdered form . All the powders were then labelled with the location from whence thay came so they can be used accordingly for each 'Finding lewis ' painting when i need them. Taking the powders to the grinding plate i used my homemade , non toxic , natural gum aribic binder , which basicly allows the pigment to adhere to the surface on which you are applying it , in this case a gum aricbic formula is used in the production of watercolours . Using my muller and plate to further grind the material and bond the particles to the binder , i began to see the magic happen. You get some idea of the intensity of the pigment as you begin to work it in the mortor bowl but there is no comparison to when it begins to evolve under the muller , some of these shades are just so glorious i found myself feeling quite emotional and i could not be happier with the resulting paint. Working it until it becomes smooth and well mixed i then scrape the paint into  empty watercolour pans and set them aside for a week or two to dry out , but of course you have to test them first , mostly to make sure your paint is fully blended and to check there are no 'pips' of pigment left un-mixed that will pop up and cause you a problem later . The colours i have made so far are intense , highly pigmented and concistent so for now i am well on my way to creating a full , bespoke , one of a kind palette of 'finding lewis ' watercolour paints  .. how brilliant !!