Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I have mid range grade watercolor tubes that I want to create a travel kit with and have seen mentioned that adding honey can make them creamier and less likely to crack in the well. I have 2 questions -
Wondering how much honey to add ? and
Can you add honey to H2O's without messing up the metallic properties? Anytime I've mixed up a color using these that I wanted to save they have cracked or been flaky, maybe it was because I was saving such a small amount.
What about a touch of glycerin? I wonder if that would work?
Glycerin is also sweet - like Lydia's concern about honey and ants, would it attract creepy-crawlies, I wonder? I have no experience to offer, I'm afraid!
Glycerin is also sweet - like Lydia's concern about honey and ants, would it attract creepy-crawlies, I wonder? I have no experience to offer, I'm afraid!
True! The thread Dina linked to is interesting - glycerin does get mentioned quite a bit, as does gum arabic and honey. Maybe the quantities needed are small enough they don't cause problems with bugs?!
Mix glycerin or gum arabic with a drop of honey to rejuvenate your paints. Cheap watercolors are not going to take honey well. You need a high pigment load. Don't go grab your little honey bear and start adding it to your paints. Try to use a good higher end honey. A good beekeeper will help you with this.
If you are blessed enough try to buy watercolors with honey in them. There are so many good brands. You won't have to play how do I mix this correctly. Plus working with honey watercolors is just luxurious. I use to do illustration work to pay for my schooling and research work. I built my stash of watercolors slowly.
I wondered about it crystallizing also and Understandblue said the not so "magic" words - fire ants. Maybe I'll just add them to my travel pallet without for now and see how it goes. Thanks for the responses though.
I never had cracking . In all my years of watercolor painting. I have artist grade & cheap paints. None of my palettes I had made or bought the paints cracked. I am at a loss too.
what is the issue if the dried watercolor paint cracks in a palette
Fall out onto the ground when you open it up. If it is a travel palette then it is likely to fall into the dirt or something and be too dirty to use and you aren't at home so can't squeeze more from the tube. Taking your tubes too would defeat the purpose of having a travel kit.
add how much honey to WC paints?
As a fellow Texan, I know you don't want that! 
