affiliate links

MOST of the links in this article are affiliate links, they are identified throughout the post. This means I will earn a small commission on each order, at no extra cost to you. I you are a new customer to Jackson’s and order through one of my affiliate links, you will have a one time discount of 10% on your first order!

However, if you would rather not support me and look for the products without going though my affiliate links, no hard feelings. Just go to the Jackson’s supplies website (no affiliate) and search for the product by name.

favorite products: the samples!!

One of my favorite things to order are the sample packs. Good professional quality paints and papers are expensive. And how much we enjoy different papers and paints often depends on personal preference. Because, yes, Arches paper might be great for a lot of people, but you might not like it.

So instead of splurging for a page or a pack of sheets and being frustrated by the cost if you dont like them, Jackson’s offer a wider array of sample pack you can get for very affordable prices. I order some of those each time I order something over at Jackson’s.

(affiliate link) Various test packs and samples

paper favorites and must trys

12 quarter sheets cold press cotton paper pack

My absolute favorite thing to buy at Jackson’s for paper is (affiliate link) this pack of 12 different artist cold press cotton quarter sheets. In there are 12 quarter sheets (so 11 x 15 inches) of different weights of paper from Arches, Fabriano Artistico, Saunders, Jackson’s and Milford. A great way to have a nice size of paper to try out.

Stonehenge paper pads

I love Stonehenge papers. And I especially love the tiny paper pads. These paper are difficult to find in my local retailers (if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them!), so I need to order them online. And if using vegan or cruelty-free supplies is important for you, Stonehenge papers are vegan.

(affiliate link) all of the Stonehenge paper pads at Jacksons

Unfortunately, as I am writing this, Stonehenge paper is mostly in “awaiting stock mode”. Hopefully they do come back in stock before the sale is over. Fingers crossed!

The little test pads are an affordable way to test out different papers. Even tough some are not watercolor papers per say, some of the papers such as Lenox cotton and Stonehenge white give amazing results when use with no too much water. They are also totally amazing with technique such as monoprinting.

The tiny pads are available on their own, but also as packs. The tiny packs are a very affordable way to test out the papers, and a very fun way to make small art without worrying about cutting the paper to the exact size you want (I’m not yet equipped with something to make perfect cuts). The only down side is that you are allowed one of each with each order! So personally, I stock up on all of them each time!

quick list of Stonehenge papers I really enjoy (affiliate links):

• Stonehenge Aqua watercolor sample pack with 3 mini pads each of cold press, cold press heavy, hot press and black cold press.
• Stonehenge paper pad sample of 10 with sample pads of the “lighter” artist papers, perfect for drawing or monoprinting or light watercolors (with not too much water).
• Yupo test sample pack of 12 with 4 pads of each yupo papers : translucent, medium and heavy. These are amazing papers to work with liquid mediums and alcohol inks. I’ve had such fun with these!!!
• All of the samples from Stonehenge if you want to take a look at individual pads in sample size (and you can add them to a sample pack too!!!

Hahnemuhle Bamboo multimedia paper

It is Simone who introduced me to this paper in a Patreon post. It is a mixed media paper, but it has a very nice and soft texture and handles water pretty well. It is perfect for swatching and studies. .

• Hanhnemuhle bamboo multimedia block a 265 gsm paper that is also vegan and cruelty free.

I actually made myself a beautiful swatch book with this paper. It is a pretty good budget paper. I would not use it for very wet projects though.

Other papers

Jackson’s has an amazing range of papers, from watercolors to printmaking papers, so many beautiful options. You should be able to find the one for you! Look at (affiliate link) watercolor pads on Jackson’s supplies website.

Until the 11th of Septembre, Jackson’s is have a sale on paper (about 10-15% from the ones I looked at). Go check it out!

But this time I plunged. And made mistakes. Mistakes I might have not made even will all of the research in the world! So please, enjoy my tips!

Pendant ce projet, j’ai appris beaucoup. Je fais habituellement beaucoup de recherchers. Beaucoup! Probablement trop. Parce que j’ai trop peur de faire des erreurs et je voudrais être certaine de trouver la meilleure façon de faire quelque chose.

Mais cette fois-ci, j’ai plongé. Un peu “tout croche”. Mais j’ai plongé. Et pour une fois, je n’ai pas attendu de tout savoir.

my first time with Peerless

Back in March, I won a 50 $ gift card in a giveaway by Peerless watercolors on Instagram. After much hesitation, I decided to be reasonable and got the rainbow pack. And also Autumn Chiu’s indigo because… indigo!

When I first swatched the colors, I was amazed at the intensity of the colors. But handling those sheets of pigments is a dirty affair! To my surprise, my fingers were so dirty after swatching! And right there, I understood why they also come in a travel book.

Since that day, I has the idea of putting the Peerless sheets in a little book. It was you know, a project on the “one day list”. And then I saw the video on Nadia Rausa‘s video on Peerless’ Youtube channel: How to make a Travel palette book with Peerless sheets.

En mars dernier, j’ai gagné une carte cadeau de 50 $ chez Peerless watercolors. Après pas mal d’hésitations, j’ai fini par être raisonnable et m’acheter seulement la collection “arc-en-ciel”. Et aussi l’indigo de Autumn Chiu, parce que…. de l’indigo!

Lorsque j’ai fait les swatchs de ces couleurs, j’ai été surprise par l’intensité des couleurs. Une super surprise. Toutefois, la mauvaise surprises a été de me retrouver les doigts tellement sales! À ce moment-là, j’ai compris pourquoi on peut aussi les commander dans un “travel book”.

Depuis ce jour, j’ai eu l’idée de faire un petit livre pour mettre une partie de mes feuilles de couleurs. Et bien en voyant le tuto de Nadia Rausa‘s sur la chaîne Youtube de Peerless: How to make a Travel palette book with Peerless sheets.

a few tips on bookbinding

I jumped in with my project…. and I learned so much. And I say that because I’m good at finding silver linings. But hopefully, you can learn directly from my mistakes and hopefully, make a book that is that much better than mine!

Je me suis lancée un peu trop vite cette fois-ci, mais sincèrement, je me suis bien amusée et j’ai beaucoup appris. Et comme je suis positive, j’ai appris. Alors profitez bien de mes conseils, et évitez mes erreurs!

the coptic stitch

I used a coptic stitch in this project. This is a bookbinding stitch that is pretty simple to “master”. And trust me when I say this because I kind of hate to sew!! My goto tutorial is one by Sea Lemon. I highly recommend to make your first book while watching the tutorial. (or your first few!) It is truly a skill learned by making.

J’ai utilisé la technique “coptic binding”. Alors là, je me rends compte que je ne connais pas les termes en français!!! Cette technique est relativement simple à réaliser, et croyez moi… je déteste la couture! Mon tuto préféré est celui de Sea Lemon. Et je vous recommande fortement de regarder le tuto en faisant premier livre (ou les quelques premiers!). C’est vraiment un truc à prendre en faisant!

• Sea Lemon Coptic stitch video

make a loose coptic stitch

Every time I make a sketchbook, I try to make my stitches better: more consistent and “not too loose”. Well this is a project that does not require perfect stitching. It might actually benefit from looser ones. Once you add the sheets of watercolors, the book becomes quite thick. Looser stitches will be better.

Chaque fois que je fais un livre ou un sketchbook, j’essaie d’améliorer les points, et de reserrer les points de la reliure. Et bien dans ce projet, ce n’est pas nécessaire. En fait, c’est encore mieux si les points sont un peu “loose”. Avec l’épaisseur ajoutée par les feuilles de couleur, le cahier devient assez vite épais. Alors, cela est un super chouette projet pour essayer la reliure Coptic pour la première fois.

the glue…

The glue. Oh my this is my biggest mistake. I used plain white school glue. The thing I had not thought about : the paints reactivate with water, right? And the glue is liquid…. duh! So next time? Let’s aim for double sided tape or a glue stick…. both would be much better choices!

La colle! Oh my…. ma plus grosse erreur! J’ai utilisé de la colle blanche régulière. Sans penser que les feuilles de pigment sont réactivées avec de l’eau, non? Et cette colle est liquide….. vous voyez ou je vais? Alors voilà. Je vous suggère donc de la colle en bâton ou alors du tape doube-face!

you want to try Peerless watercolor sheets? (coupon!)

So you want to try Peerless watercolor sheets? If you follow my link here, you should get a 30% off coupon (if you use it, I get a coupon on my next order too!).

For a first try, I recommend the small bonus pack, unlabeled for quite an affordable price, or mystery grab bags. Very affordable ways to try the sheets! However, the colors won’t be labeled. I’m considering getting one of those for myself, though I might wait for my subscription box and see after that if they are still there!

Vous voulez essayer les couleurs de Peerless? Avec ce lien, vous aurez un coupon de 30% sur votre première commande (et moi aussi sur ma prochaine!).

Et pour un premier essai, je vous recommande le “small bonus pack”, sans identification ou les mystery grab bags. Deux façons super abordables d’essayer les couleurs de Peerless. Par contre, les couleurs ne seront pas identifiées. Mais je suis quand même en train de considérer m’en acheter aussi! J’attendrai peut-être de recevoir ma boîte du mois de juillet par contre!

Que sont les pigments dit “laque” (laque de Garance par exemple)? Et peut-on en faire à la maison? Ce billet vise à vous donner quelques références pour vous lancer et à documenter mes premiers essais.

so what is a lake pigment?

So there is the Wikipedia definition that goes around. I encourage you to read it. But if you are totally new to dyeing, ink making and such. It will not mean much to you. I’ve been reading a while about it, and I’m still unsure!

Il existe une définition sur le Wikipédia en anglais (voir plus haut) qui est en fait assez peu éclairante pour quiconque n’est pas familier avec les termes de teinture ou d’encres. Même en ayant lu un peu sur le sujet, je m’y perd encore. Je n’ai pas retrouvé la traduction de cette définition sur Wikipédia, mais il y a quelques infos sur l’article relatif aux pigments.

In short, you take a dye or an ink that you made. You add alum, which has been dissolved into water. You then add sodium carbonate, also know as soda ash, also dissolved into water. The whole thing bubbles like crazy and then, after a while, pigment settles on the bottom. You filter, and voilà! Pigment!

Très simplement, on part d’une teinture ou d’une encre. On ajoute de l’alum, dissous dans de l’eau. On ajoute du sodium de carbonate, fréquemment référencé comme “soda ash” en anglais, qui est aussi dissous dans l’eau. Le truc se met à faire de la mousse (ça peut être assez impressionant!) et après un moment, du pigment se crée et s’accumule au fond. On filtre, et voilà! Du pigment!

what can you lake?

You might know of rose madder lake? That is probably the most famous lake, made from roots of a plant. But Carmine is also a lake, but made of crushed insects, the cochineal. So many things can “be laked”. From my limited exploration of this subject though, if you have made a botanical ink, you can probably try to “lake it”.

Vous connaissez probablement la Garance? C’est probablement la plus connue, du moins pour moins. Cette couleur est tirée de la racine d’une plante. Mais il existe aussi le Carmin. S’il s’agit également d’un pigment laqué, il tire sa couleur d’un insecte cette fois, la cochenille. De mes explorations encore préliminaires de ce vaste sujet, il semblerait que si vous avez fait une encre végétale, vous pourrez vraisemblablement vous essayer à en tirer un pigment laqué!

my first try

So the other day I made some avocado ink, that I made following Melissa Mary Jenkins’ recipe she graciously put up on her blog. During a live, she mentionned that avocados shouldn’t be thrown after the first batch of ink… they could be reused. So I did. And I did. Until I got tired. I made 4 batches of “ink” and ended up with something like 4 liters of ink. LITERS!!! It was the perfect time to try the laking process.

L’autre jour, j’ai fait de l’encre d’avocat, en suivant la recette de Melissa Mary Jenkins. La recette est disponible (en anglais) sur son site web. Pendant un live sur Insta, elle a mentionné que les noyaux pouvaient être réutilisés plusieurs fois. Alors je l’ai fait. Et encore. Jusqu’à ne plus savoir quoi en faire! J’avais 4 LITRES d’encre au bout du process. C’était le moment d’essayer le pigment laqué!

I cannot wait for the pigment to dry… but it is said it can take a few days…. I’ll update you when I know! I am currently running other trials. I will try to document everything thoroughly in order to let you know more about the results!

J’ai hâte que le pigment ait séché! Mais il semble que cela puisse prendre plusieurs jours… Je suis en train de faire d’autres expériences aussi. Je vais tâcher de les documenter comme il le faut pour pouvoir vous en reparler!

references

So you want to try to make a lake? It is very fun! Though I’ve not yet completed the drying of my first batch… I will update this post as I advance, Here are more advanced ladies that will provide you with a lot of info and are well worth the support.

Alors, vous voulez vous essayer? C’est très amusant! Bien que je n’ai pas encore terminé mon premier processus au complet…. Je mettrai à jour l’info dans ce billet au fur et à mesure! Je vous laisse toutefois une liste de lecture par des femmes formidables qui partagent leurs procédés et qui méritent bien votre attention. Je n’ai pas traduit ce qui suit, les références étant en anglais. Mais si vous avez des questions… n’hésitez pas en commentaires ou sur insta!

a few ink recipes

• Avocado ink recipe by Melissa Mary Jenkins
• How to capture spring flowers in ink by Melissa Mary Jenkins

the first lake “recipes” I am using

• Natalie Stopka made a post with her laking process. She also gives much more info on pots and everything you need in a story highlight.
• The one first published in a Rebecca Desnos magazine

books and workshops

• A paintmaker’s ressource – A blog post I wrote for Amanda of Boulder Colors. You will find a list of all the materials you need and links to where to get them, including need-to-haves and nice-to-haves things for when making paint or laking pigments.
• Ebook and Digital course – Turning plants into watercolors by Boulder Colors. I have read this book and even made a few illustrations and this is an amazing resource by Amanda. And there is a version with a video demo if you want. To say Amanda knows her stuff is an understatement!

inspiration on instagram

• Texas Wild Color sells some watercolor paints with lake pigments (I have bought a few and they have encouraged me to pursue these experiments. She is currently in West Africa and experimenting lake making with local plants. It’s fascinating to follow!
• Natalie Stopka is the author of the first lake recipe I shared earlier
• The Green Hippopotamus posts many laking experiments often with videos
• Bergette pigments posts amazingly photogenic shots of the pigments she makes
• You can also find a few hashtags on the gram to find artists experimenting with such processes #lakepigment among others.

Have you ever seen the beauties in Sarah Van Der Linden (@mirglis) cyanotype? If not…. please head on over here to be mesmerized! I am a huge fan of Sarah’s cyanotype work, the dark blue shades in which appear white shapes seem so mysterious and very beautiful.

I am trying something new here, all text in italic is the French version of this post!

Avez-vous déjà admiré les super créations de Sarah Van Der Linden (@mirglis) avec les cyanotypes sur instagram? Si ce n’est pas le cas, je vous invite à aller y jeter un coup d’oeil tout de suite! Je suis trop fan du travail de Sarah. Mais les cyanotypes, avec leur couleur de prusse bien vive et les formes blanches qui se détachent nettement, il y a un quelque chose de mystérieux, magique et tellement joli…

what are cyanotypes?

Very simply put, cyanotypes are made by exposing paper on which a photosensitive solution has been applied. You add elements on top of your paper and you squish it with a glass. After a little while in the sun, and you are left with a white “photography” of whatever you left on the paper. It is the oldest form of photography. You can read all about cyanotypes on Wikipedia. Very detailed and full of artists you might want to check out for their use of the process.

Qu’est-ce qu’est un cyanotype? Très simplement, c’est une procédé par lequel on applique une solution sensible au soleil sur un papier. On dépose ensuite des éléments sur le papier et on ajouter une vitre par dessus, et hop, au soleil! Après coup, il nous reste une jolie “photographie” des éléments déposés. Ssi vous voulez en savoir plus, je vous recommande le super billet de blog de Sarah à propos de ce procédé et de son historique.

why ready-to-go cyanotype kits?

Sarah offers ready-to-go cyanotype kits. I made her promise to sell me one of the first kits so I could test making cyanotypes. I was so excited to try, but I was scared to order the solution during the winter months and they would freeze. So the premade cyanotype kits made a lot of sense for me. And also, not too much of an investment if I ended up not liking the process!

Sarah offre des kits tout-prêt de cyanotypes. Je lui avais fait promettre de me vendre un de ses premiers kits pour essayer les cyanotypes! J’avais très envie d’essayer les kits, mais j’avais peur de commandé les liquides en hiver et qu’ils gèlent dans ma boite aux lettres. Et aussi, je n’avais pas envie de me retrouver avec de grosses bouteilles si je n’aimais pas le processus autant!

how do cyanotypes work?

Making cyanotypes is in fact very fun and quite simple…. which leaves a lot of place for creativity! You pull out the prepared sheets from their protective package. You add plants or flowers, dried or fresh, on the sheets. And the add a glass on top. And you bring everything outside. On a warm Spring day, it is fun to stay near the developing cyanotypes!

Faire les cyanotypes, ce n’est pas trop compliqué. Ça laisse en fait beaucoup de place pour la créativité! Après avoir sorti les feuilles de leur emballage protecteur, il faut poser des choses dessus pour faire des empreintes. Des feuilles, des fleurs, des plantes, sèches ou fraiches. Ensuite, on apporte le tout dehors, en essayant de ne pas tout faire tomber et on attend. C’est vraiment très chouette à faire par une belle journée de printemps!

After a while, you need to take them in, removing the items you place and rince the prints. This was stressful for me! I kept worrying that they were not rinsed enough. After this, you have to let them dry and the color develops over time (I kept worrying too that I messed something up because the color was so pale blue!).

Après un moment, on rentre le tout et on enlève les trucs qu’on avait posé pour faire des empreintes. Et puis on rince. Je n’arrêtais pas de m’inquiéter de ne pas avoir assez rincé! Finalement, il faut laisser sécher. Le bleu se développe avec le temps. J’avais peur d’avoir raté le truc parce les cyanotypes étaient tous bleu pâle!

my results

Oh my gosh we had so much fun! My daughter had half of the sheets, and I had the other half. We had collected way more stuff to use than the space we had to use them…. We will definitely make more cyanotypes in the future! See my instagram post for a mini video of all the cyanotypes together.

Oh lala que je me suis amusée! Ma fille a la moitié des feuilles pour créer des cyanotypes, et moi, l’autre moitié. Nous avions ramassé vraiment beaucoup trop de choses pour le nombres de feuilles de nous avions! Nous allons définitivement en refaire! Allez voir mon post instagram pour voir une animation de tous mes cyanotypes.

But what amazed me the most was the texture you can get from the plants. I had not thought of that and this will guide my further experiments. The ginko leave was just amazing. And the dried hortensia petals as well. You can see the texture in the petals. I cannot wait to remake some with “leaf lace” and other things I had thought too delicate to play with.

Ce qui m’a surpris le plus dans cette expérience : les textures des feuilles et fleurs. La feuille séchée de ginko par exemple. Tout simplement flabbergastant. Pareil pour les pétales d’hortensias. Je vais résessayer avec d’autres choses que je croyais trop délicates pour faire des cyanotypes…. dès que j’aurai reçu ma commande!

where to buy the kits?

Sarah sold a few premade kits this winter. She might sell more in the future. I feel like is a wonderful idea! Sarah has an Etsy shop, which is on pause right now. You can also find Sarah on instagram where you can perhaps mention nicely your interest for a kit!

Sarah a une boutique Etsy, par contre la boutique est en pause pour l’instant. Vous pouvez également trouver Sarah sur instagram où vous pourrez peut-être gentiment lui signifier votre intérêt pour les kits!

where to buy cyanotype supplies?

In Canada, I found Opus Art Supplies who carry Jacquard cyanotype kits. I’m so excited and just placed an order! I prefer to encourage the “local” stores (though this one is all the way on the other side of Canada!).

Au Canada, j’ai trouvé le magasin Opus Art Supplies qui tient en stock les produits pour faire des cyanotypes. Je suis tellement contente que je viens de placer une commande! Je préfère encourager les commerces “locaux”, même si locaux ici ça veut dire à l’autre bout du pays!

And just for the sake of verifying my info, I now found my usual local art store, DeSerres, now carries it too…. ah well! I’ll know for next time!

Et juste en écrivant ces lignes, afin de vérifier mes infos, je vois que mon magasin habituel, DeSerres, a un nouveau produit…. les solutions pour cyanotypes! Et bien! Je le saurai pour la prochaine fois!

I won’t get into the whole discussion of single vs multi pigment colors today, I simply wanted to share a project I made with my little swatches. But if this topic interests you, here is a great read about Why you should (or should not) stick to single pigments in watercolor? by Lee Angold.

This post is a way to share my explorations, it is not quite a theoric explanation of color mixing! So please enjoy it with its qualities and limits.

This posts contains some affiliate links that are identified as such. If you buy something from these links I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Main objectives : Saving money and Color study

The main idea I wanted to explore was the following: in theory, if you buy the single pigment tubes of paints, then surely you should be able to mix all the other colors in a company’s range of paints, thus saving money. Right? Well yes and no!

My second goal doing this was to get a better understanding and knowledge about colors. When I started Huevember by Denise Soden, I was amazed to learn that Sap green was not a single pigment color, but that each marker and brand seemed to have their own recipe for it. It got me wanting to learn more.

The project : using the Daniel Smith’s Dotcard

So I wanted to see if I could do this using my Daniel Smith’s dot card (affiliate link). I had already used the sample dots to see the colors, but I was searching for a fun project to make with the rest of the dots. And for many colors, there are that much, so the project had to be small!

I first printed out the color chart for all 238 Daniel Smith’s watercolors. It has the pigment info on them. And then, proceeded to paint small swatches on Legion Stonehenge (affiliate link) 1 inch by 1 1\2 inch little rectangles.

It was a bit of a long adventure, but I did appreciate the exercise. Though the size of the swatches is small, it is big enough to give you an idea if you appreciate painting with that particular color.

I ended up with a great result. Go check my Instagram posts about them to see the little cards all lined up by color.

Being the nerd I am… the first thing I tried to make what a sort of map of all the colors in a somewhat color wheel way… My plan was to put the single pigments and under them, the mixed ones. It worked well with yellow/oranges/reds…. but the bottom half of the page ended up a bit too crowded. In the end, it did help me study the colors. I have plans to transform this into a colored version…. will be much more interesting.

Single vs Multiple pigment hues

I looked at single pigments. Throughout the collection, I noted every pigment that was used. Interesting fact, 4 pigments (noted in the bottom) were not available as single pigment colors. There goes the “you can mix any colors with the single pigment colors”. Of course, there is the possibility I made a mistake. ahha!

Then, I looked to visually put all the single pigment paint swatches together. On the following pictures, the top row are mixed pigment colors. The bottom row are single pigment colors. I was surprises to see there were many more of those than of the mixed pigments!

Multiple pigment hues

So in my sketchbook, I also planned, with some examples, how to visualize mixed pigment hues.

The easiest combination: two colors making a third. That is pretty straight forward. This is the case for the famous Quinacridone gold, which is made with a mix of P048 – Quinacridone burnt orange and PY150 – Nickel Azo Yellow (one of my favorite colors!).

But then you realize sometimes, two colors make more than one mix. That is the case with the PO48 and PY150, which are also used to make Quinacridone deep gold. Oh well then…. that is good news because that means if I buy tubes of two colors, I can then mix 4 of the colors of the range. Very neat!

And then, I started to look at more complicated colors, which use more than two single pigments. And that’s where it gets interesting… though a little confusing!

Lets start with a simple one : Sap green. I had mentioned in at the beginning of this post. Daniel Smith’s sap green is made out of three pigments : P048 – Quinacridone burnt orange, PG7 – Phthalo Green and PY150 – Nickel Azo Yellow. Now that might get a little more complicated to mix on a regular basis to the exact shade.

Which is why those mixed pigment colors are often called Convenience mixes. If you use them a lot, then by all means, buy a tube because you might turn mad trying to reach that exact shade every time you feel like using that hue.

Multiple hues in single pigments

When I started to get interested into color theory I learned about pigment numbers. I thought I had the key to something: well there is a pigment number, this must mean that all of those pigments are the same hue/color….. Boy was I wrong! It couldn’t be THAT simple, right!

Where it gets really confusing, is when you get to PY43, PBr7, PR101 and such. For those pigment “families”, there are multiple shades. In the pictures below, I grouped the swatches by pigment number. And you will see some big variations between them! (please keep in mind those pictures might not be totally calibrated, but pay attention to the difference between the swatches rather than the colors itself).

A complicated mix!

So let’s take a complicated example: Olive Green. The info on this tube of colors is that it is mixed with PY97, Pb29, PBr7. So great, if I want to save some money, I’ll grab these three tubes. I’ll be able to mix this olive green color and probably many others, right?

Only problem is there are two PB29 in the Daniel Smith’s line and seven PBr7, wight if you count Van Dyck Brown that is a mix of all of those itself. And who says the pigments that go into the mix are the exact ones going into the making of this olive green? You see where I’m going with this?

Word of the end?

I believe this exercise has made me understand colors better. I love warm yellows and I love colors that are mixed with warm yellows. It would make sense for me to stock up on tubes of single pigment warm yellows.

I also love colors mixed with such yellows. So with a few chosen colors, I might end up being able to mix tons of superb hues that I will use and love.

However, convenience mixes are there for a reason. And if you look at some colors like that Olive Green, if it is a color you love to use, by all means jump on the convenience tube because seriously, you might get a little frustrated mixing to match that perfect shade! Especially if you ever use the wrong mixing color….

What do you think?

(there is an update at the end of the article about follow up from the company)

Please see this story as a general warning to be mindful before jumping in head over heels in to a project.

Before you read this, please understand I am more mad at myself for not doing my due diligence on this project, topping it with offering free advertising (to my then not that many followers, but still, sorry!). I am not in the habit of ranting (especially publicly), and I don’t think the company did anything totally bad. But the fact that the whole thing is based on not very authentic engagement still gets to me.

And also, the worst customer service ever.

In the beginning : the beautiful project

It was spring. I was starting to get seriously into watercolors after a year of dabbling and collecting paints colors. By this point, I had nice artisanal watercolors, I did not however have a nice set of brushes.

Through insta-friends, I saw this Kickstarter campaign about eco-friendly brushes. For an ok price (still 35 english pounds though, so not cheap), you could save the world by buying brushes made with ecological bamboo instead of wood, which apparently grows too slowly to be ecoanything as presented by this campaign. And of cours, the brushes had synthetic bristles because cruelty free is better.

It had a picture of a pool, artist grade mention (maybe I imagined that one), eco friendly and cruelty free features, instafriends endorsement, kickstarter aura….. I plunged into the adventure without a second thought.

My natural instinct of researching stuff first was absent that day, for some reason. You gotta understand…. my natural ways are usually to research stuff until I end up not making a decision. But the company also stated they had already sourced the materials and were ready to go into production. And they had before made other brush sets, so really, what could be the risks?

There are no risks in terms of production, we have already sourced materials and made up products samples. We’re ready to bring this to market!

From the Kickstarter project description

I even promoted the campaign on the gram (sorry for those who bought because of me!). I truly believed. We were excited together and even talked about it.

I had only backed one other campaign before at that point. Things went very smoothly with regular updates and delivery smack on schedule. Perhaps the product was easier to manufacture.

First question marks

We all thought the campaign would end up not being funded. And that point, we were bummed. We all posted on social to help get the campaign funded in those last 24 hours… it worked! In the last 24 hours, the missing 40% of the objective was reached. Yay!

Now that I look at the final numbers, it leaves me with questions…. 66 contributors with a total of 5147 pounds. That’s an average of 78 pounds each. But many of us did not pledge that much.

If you take the 62 contributions you can see on the Kickstarter page of the project, with the amount needed for the pledge of their reward tier, it totals 1940 pounds (estimate based on the minimum pledge for each reward tier). Which leaves over 60% or 3200 pounds to the another 4 contributors.

But it’s not against the rules to have generous backers in the last hours.

Slow updates

The fun of supporting a campaign on Kickstarter is that you get previews and you feel like you made that project possible, that you actually had an impact. In this case, I think we actually only made a very very early preorder.

The other benefit is that you usually have a better price because you help the project get “kickstarted”. In this case, we maybe got a few bucks off the retail price. But after all the pre-launch, free shipping and cyber monday sales that happened since then, even if we got the best price for the set, the feeling of having had a special deal is certainly gone.

And the updates. That was difficult….. the company only posted a few updates when people posted about not having any. Or after missing deadlines by a few weeks. And at some point, shipping started. Without even a mention on the Kickstarter platform. Surprise! People started receiving them before we knew they were shipped.

The product itself : not great

Well. After all. If the product is great, then all is forgiven, right? Well in short, it is not great. They are probably good craft level, maybe student level brushes.

A brush cannot be artist grade for oil, acrylics and watercolors all at the same time. That is the promise on the box. As I said, I should’ve checked first. Craftamo does not make professional watercolor brushes…. And again, they use the term “premium”, not “professional artist quality” on them. My bad.

I am not yet a pro, far from it. I cannot assess with certainty how much they are not professional. I just know that for the amount of money, considering how many small brushes there are, and how small even the bigger brushes are, I could have better spent my money.

And for many of the brushes I have received, some have crooked hairs, one had stray hairs and the sizes seem weird (look at the 0 vs its neighbors in the above pic).

But most notably, the ferrule (the part that holds the hair in place) is not centered with the brushes. That makes for an awkward position in the hand when you paint. I have made a video comparing different brands of brushes I own, but this is not normal. You can see the video on my instagram post on the brushes. You can also see my friend Rincs’ video on her patreon post.

The eco-friendly-ishness of the brushes

First of all, after all that concern with the eco-friendly positioning of the brushes, replace possible sustainable wood by bamboo, the box they come in is a statement in over packaging. Yet it is a beautiful box, but wasteful in my opinion. Especially since many of the brushes are not straight to begin with!

And if you google “Is bamboo more sustainable than wood“, you find there it some debate. Especially since the rush towards bamboo seems to have created some less than desirable effects in some places. But again, those are questions I could have asked before throwing myself into this adventure.

The worst customer service ever

In good faith, I raised my concerns directly to Dan Worthington (or Dan Worthy on his travel account), founder of Craftamo and apparently a nice guy.

He tells me he is happy I reached to them first instead of “going public”.

After a few exchange, he told me only 3 of other people had issues of all the people they sent the brushes to, which make me the 4th. Weird, that I happen I know 3 others who are not happy plus two people from Kickstarter whom I dont know. And then we saw others on Instagram.

Anysway, Dan told me that he was “going to share the videos with our team”. Even asked me to tell him exactly which brushes had issues. I thought this sounded promising and that they were looking into the issue. And I wildly thought I might get others brushes.

Dan then asked to write an email to support. I thought it was to better follow the issue. I obliged. That was on December 17th. I thought I would let the holidays pass before following up.

At the end of January, I reached out again. And a few times since then. There are no more answers on instagram….

I went to check the status on my support ticket today. I found out the support ticket had been closed…

… two months ago!

….

And an instafriend who had been through the commenting on their products found out she was blocked from their instagram! Wow! She only politely reviewed the product.

Since then, Rincs wrote a Patreon post on this! She finds it hilarious. I guess that’s how you have to take it! And by the way, Craftamo, in a very mature response, has blocked her from seing their account on Instagram! For simply writing an honest review on a product.

So I’m not holding my breath on hearing back from the company.

Word of the end

Beware of the power of marketing.

That is all. From a company with a strong social media presence and what seems to be genuine engagement and concern for artists and the environment, well, I expected quality brushes and an honest exchange with the issues. Because after all, shit does happen. How you deal with it is where you see a difference. Here, Caftamo just hides it instead of addressing it.

I leave feeling like an idiot for falling into the trap of an ordinary product clothed into marketing wohoo and a beautiful shiny box.

Coming from a company who “advises” artists as how to market themselves to companies (and then sells them exposure!), maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise.

So this long piece helps put this behind me. I have said all I needed. I am not angry anymore (I think, I’m trying really really hard!). This brushes are being sent to somebody who might enjoy them for what they are and I will not be sad every time I see them in my home.

More info on Craftamo

I leave these with you. These are simply for your information. They are not to be taken directly as the cause of the failures of this adventure. However, all taken together, they reinforce my belief that this company is marketing first, quality of product, well, much further down the list.

• Dan Worthington‘s travel instagram account (15 months traveling non-stop…. congrats! might explain a few things. To be fair though, some people make it work the travelling while working)
• Craftamo’s Advertising page… for artists who want to advertise to be featured on Craftamo’s socials and website! (yes you read that right, artists who want to pay Craftamo to be featured, not Craftamo sponsoring artists)
• The Kickstarter campaign for Cruelty-Free, Eco-Friendly Bamboo Brushes for Artists

Edit 24 hours later

So, after posting the link to this article on Instagram, and I guess seeing all the people commenting of similar issues with customer service, and an intervention by Vanessa from The Sprout Creative and @vanessa_paints_ on Instagram, I received an email, a refund on Kickstarter and DMs in Instagram.

This is the email I received from the Customer Happiness department.

The company representative has told me that they would resolve any issues with people who addressed the issues with them. So even if you are still waiting on an answer, the best course of action might be to write to them again to verify that your claim/request is taken care of. You can fill out the form on the website or write directly to support@craftamo.com.

I still think this is the way Craftmo has acted since the beginning of this project: acting only when people are getting frustrated publicaly. Good customer service is to be proactive about issues your customers have, and not simply react when there is bad press.

Edit a few weeks later

Actually, I’m writing this at the end of May. With COVID and all, I totally forgot to update this more.

In the end, the follow-up from Craftamo where kind of crap.

• They issued a refund to my Kickstarter pledge, after I wrote a bad review for their product on the product. Then, they asked for their product back being sent at my own expense, though I had written in this exact article that I had sent to someone else….
• Among the people who contacted me, a lot were offered discounts on future purchases, instead of refunds or discounts on the purchase the person was not happy with.
• Most were told that if they had tested their brush, they could not be returned for refund because they could not then be resold. I think the company is missing the point between defective product vs not liking the product.