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Handmade

Handmade Natural pigments, watercolor paints, plant dyes & inks

How to Make Watercolor Binder

17th May 2022

A step-by-step guide to making gum Arabic based watercolor binder for handmade watercolors The use of Gum Arabic as a binder dates back to ancient times.  The presence of Gum Arabic increases watercolor brilliancy, gloss, and transparency, giving greater depth to each color. It slows down the drying time of paint, and can also be used for controlling spread when painting wet-on-wet. Watercolor paint is made by dispersing pigments of any colour in different proportions with acacia gum binder. The…

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Handmade

Farewell to 2020: My year in review!

8th January 2021

The year 2020 was unlike any other in our lifetime! It was a year filled with trials and tribulations for everyone. In hindsight, it has been a year that I will remember the most for it gave us once in a lifetime opportunity to look at life in a very profound and unique way! I reflect on 2020 by not fixating on the tribulations and personal loss but instead acknowledging their existence, honoring the thoughts and feelings that were a…

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Handmade

How to make twig pens and brushes!

6th June 2020

Elder (Sambucus nigra) or Holler as it is called in Austria grows very commonly as a shrub or small tree. Its natural habitat is on river banks and in wet woodlands.  The fruits and flowers of the Elder have long been used in traditional Austrian medicine. In fact, Elder is an absolute classic whether it is made into a syrup, roasted, or cooked into a marmalade, one or the other of these delicacies can almost always be found in an…

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Handmade

Plant to Paper: The process of making Handmade paper

16th May 2020

 The journey of a plant to paper! What is Paper? It is a network of plant fibers laid down as a flat sheet. Paper is a basic and immensely versatile material that has been used since long for written communication and the dissemination of information besides having numerous other applications. Paper has many names (papier, carta, kagaz, waraq, etc) depending on where you go, but everyone understands its many uses and importance. In today’s modern world there exists an endless variety…

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