I love dabbling in different kinds of art - it's fun to learn new techniques and mediums, and you never know what will strike a chord and offer a neat rabbit hole to go chasing down 😄

This weekend I took a watercolor workshop at WildCraft Studio School, a local studio here in Portland that offers a really diverse range of artistic and creative classes. This watercolor class was led by Carolyn Sweeney, artist and owner behind Strata Ink, where she forages, makes, and sells watercolors and inks.

Carolyn's watercolor workshop was super interesting. We learned the process of making watercolors from scratch, and then we paired up and actually made our own watercolors! We all came away with a set of six handmade watercolors.

I'll share the process we learned in class - but first, here are some defintions that may help:

• Binder: think of this as the "glue" that holds (binds) the pigment together and makes it usable as paint. There's no single "right" recipe, and even the recipe that you decide to use will need tweaking based on things like climate and what pigment you're using it on. 
• Pigment: this is the dust you get from grinding things like mineral or charcoal. Pigment is insoluble in water, meaning it doesn't dissolve.
• Mulling: the process of blending pigment and binder together, using a muller and a glass palette. Note that mulling isn't for grinding pigment into finer particles - it's just to combine the pigment and binder.

At a high level, the process for making your own watercolors is pretty straightforward. Make your binder; scoop some pigment onto your glass palette, and add the binder. Use a palette knife for initial blending so you don't have loose powder blowing around. Then use your muller to blend the pigment and binder together until smooth. Lastly, use the palette knife to scoop your newly-made watercolor into a container and let it dry!

Easy-peasy, right? Well, mostly - but there are little things to consider along the way that can make a difference. For instance, are you making an oil-based binder or gum arabic-based binder? What's the right ratio of binder to pigment? How smooth do you want your pigment? 

As with many things in art, those questions have multiple answers. Part of the creative process is understanding how those answers impact the art you're making and figuring out what works best for you.

For me, I realized that what I really want is to take my watercolors and turn them into inks! I want to do large abstract washes of paint on canvas or paper, which means I need a looser medium. So if I'm following the process that Carolyn taught us, I would stop before the last step of scooping the watercolor into a container to dry. Instead, I would put it into a bottle and add water - which makes an ink!

 Carolyn did a great job explaining everything, answering our questions, and walking us through the process of making our own watercolors. I loved it so much that I'm actually signing up for her Botanical Inks class in the spring! 

What are some techniques or types of art that you've been wanting to learn?

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Here are some photos from the workshop:

• Mulling Maya Blue paint on our glass slab

• Using a palette knife to scrape up our newly-made paint

• Our finished Maya Blue watercolor in its cute little paint pans

• The final result: a full set of handmade watercolors!