Pigment and Paint Workshop
- What Happens?

A visitor discovered our shop in Appleby and three months later enquired about a full day workshop with her artistic friends.

This is followed by another email to another client who work crossed a range of interests.

Answer
Generally, if we aim for a 10 am start and finish around 4 pm. With an hour break and a finger buffet meal in between.

It can be dusty so please do not wear your Sunday best.

If you find any interesting coloured clays, stones or earth bring them along and I will happily show you how to turn them into pigment and paint. But don't worry if you don't find anything, because we have quite a lot we can play with here in the studio.

In the morning we will look at 30,000 years of pigment making, what it is and make several different types. In the afternoon we will make and discover what paint is and take home both paint and a picture or two.

It is usually a day full of fun but can also be quite intense.

Looking forward to sharing experiences and thoughts with you.

P.S. We have started using a new method (several thousand years old) to make ultra-smooth pigments and its magical way of extracting pigments from earth and stones. I'm looking forward to sharing these and many other ideas with you.

Each workshop is tailor made to cater for your interests and mediums. This is part of the reply to another happy customer.

It will be an intensive day starting at 10 am discovering what and where pigments come from and how they are made and experiencing making them ourselves from rocks, metals, minerals and clays.

Then we will stop to take stock of the day so far and have a buffet lunch.

The second half of the day will be looking at how pigments are turned into a range of different types of paint using egg yolks, acrylics, resins and oils and then painting with them. You will also have a chance to use mica and what it is, along with real gold and silver leaf and imitation versions known as Dutch Schlag with an immense range of different finishes.

The day course is a mixture of practical, theory and anecdotes and is often rather mucky, so please do not wear your Sunday best.