Is it Shaker!?

So the process I know was for small industrial scale watercolor production, but you can do a version of it at home. You need a few specialized tools, but mostly what you need is patience and persistence.

Most watercolor has four ingredients in common - a binding agent like gum arabic, a humectant like honey or corn syrup - this keeps it wetter longer - clean water and a pigment. There are other ingredients and the proportions change in each recipe and color, but those combined can make a basic paint. There are lots of good recipes out there - find one that sounds good and is readily available and affordable for your first tries. (The most most common extra items we added were opacifiers, brighteners, and thickeners. Even high end paint uses them, not just student grade! Also fungal/bacterial inhibitors).

Most paints now use artificial pigments designed for the automotive industry. They're the biggest consumer, but they make so much that they have a lot to sell, and it has benefitted artists by making high quality consistent colors very affordable. They're easy to use. The minerals you're going to be using are less consistent and considerably more work, but a lot more interesting!!

The biggest hurdle is preparation. We had a guy who sourced minerals from all over the world, and another guy whose whole job was to crush and pulverize the stone till it was a very fine sand. Then the last stage was to mix the paint and run it through big steel roll mills till we hit the correct 'grind' - the ideal particle size and distribution in the correct consistency emulsion. It was a painstaking process and the color would be checked constantly by the chemist.

You don't have a steel mill, in all likelihood. So you're going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Pound the rocks with a hammer (eye and breathing protection are MANDATORY) till it's as close to a fine sand as it can be. Then finer, if possible. Then, a small amount at a time, you have to grind it to powder using a mortar and pestle - you can NEVER USE THIS MORTAR FOR FOOD EVER AGAIN. Carefully spoon the powder into a container - this is your pigment.

Depending on the color, a batch of paint could use over seventy pounds of pigment in a 50 gallon drum. You don't need that much, thank goodness. But you probably need a tablespoon or so. It will take some experimentation. Save every bit you grind, in case you need to add more as you go.

The next step is to mix your ingredients, dissolving the gum Arabic and honey into the water, as well as maybe a little glycerin. The mixture should be like a very thin syrup but not watery. Next you're going to start the final grind using a sheet of glass (real glass, not plexiglass) and a tool called a muller. It's like a big glass drop with a flat bottom. Put the pigment on the glass and make a small dimple in the middle to add the liquid to, then mix both together under the muller. You'll work the mixture around between the muller and glass sheet, and the action will work like my steel mill to gradually distribute the mineral particles evenly while evaporating excess water. Keep adding a bit of water now and then of it gets too dry. Aim for a smooth, consistent emulsion, nothing gritty or sandy.

In the home setting, you'll need to be the final judge of when the paint is ready. When it starts looking and feeling "painty", take a tiny bit and paint a swatch on some cold press watercolor paper. You want to see both the color, but also how the particles sink into the valleys of the paper texture. That's the magic of mineral pigments - they granulate a lot, because they're grains! The process will take a WHILE. Even a small batch on a big machine could take eight hours of repeated grinding and mixing to hit the grind. Hematite could take a week. Be patient. Take breaks. Have someone else take a turn while you rest your shoulders. But don't quit.

Carefully scrape the paint up with a pallette knife and scoop it into a empty paint half pan or even just a little jar. Protect it from oxygen. It won't last forever because it's vulnerable to mold and bacteria. So USE IT! Paint something. Celebrate your new power. Use it for good.

Try unconventional materials. Grind a little brick or an old broken ceramic. Grind up a piece of charcoal. Grind up a colorful piece of broken glass (EYE AND BREATHING PROTECTION). See what happens. Make plant dyes and mix them with baking soda to make a "pigment' powder and try that. Try clay from a local riverbank. Get wild.

Now I will reveal the dark secret of the expensive prestige watercolors that cost $50+ per tube. Almost every color is pretty muddy without additional pigments. That's not necessarily true for all of them but certain minerals (especially fucking amethyst) are mostly just texture without the additional pigments. Turquoise is another offender. Hematite is the real deal though! Most minerals you see sold at stores in those trays of loose rocks have been dyed. They won't be that color all the way through. A cool way to find your own is to rub wet stones together to find ones that leave strong color ful streaks - those are good candidates.

This sure is a wall of text. Hope you get something from it. I'll post some old paint factory photos soon. I loved to take pictures of the colors coming off the mill. There was something so incredibly beautiful and indulgent. Exquisite.

I don't miss the job, but I miss the colors. It was a privilege to make something so beautiful, and I didn't take it for granted. I hope you enjoy it.