Re: Why Winsor & Newton?

Argon3@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 5/29/05 6:05:23 AM, swphoto@verizon.net writes:
>
> After talking with people on this list, I
> have mail ordered Daniel Smith and M. Graham pigments
>
> If you are planning on using the M. Graham watercolors out of the
> tubes, please note that, if I am not mistaken, they use honey as part
> of the binder.

Yes, and so does Sennelier. At any rate the honey in the M. Graham
doesn't affect gum printing negatively; as I said earlier M.Graham was
the first watercolor paint I used for gum printing and remains my
favorite. And the honey keeps the paint from drying up in the tube,
forever.

My sentiments about Winsor & Newton are well-known; I'm not real
impressed with the company. My complaint isn't with the quality of the
paint, which no doubt is good enough, but with some of their marketing
strategies, and their lightfastness ratings; if interested in reading
more about that you can read it at

http://www.pacifier.com/~kthayer/html/pigment.html

(scroll down to the section on permanence, under the larger heading
"Characteristics of pigments that are important to gum printing").

To me their paint is overpriced, espcially given that there are other
brands which are just as good, such as Daniel Smith and Graham that
aren't nearly as expensive.

As far as I can tell, Judy and I agree on this point, so it didn't make
sense to me why anyone would think I was taking umbrage with her
statement about Winsor & Newton not being the paint of choice for gum. I
have no argument with that statement whatever, in fact it's what I've
always said. So, no argument; someone was seeing an argument where there
wasn't one is all it boils down to as far as I'm concerned.
Katharine Thayer

> As to why anyone uses a specific brand of paint for any application;
> consistency, consistency and pigment load factor into it heavily.  The
> thickness or thinness of the paint coming out of the tube
> (consistency), the quality control from batch to batch (consistency)
> and how much pigment and how much filler the manufacturer puts into
> the colors.  W&N has been known for maintaining high quality standards
> and for a wide range of available pigments - some of which have been
> abandoned by other manufacturers...sorry to hear that even W&N seem to
> have decided to clip a few off their line.
>
> There are several premium watercolor manufacturers and providers of
> pure pigment around now...many more than there was even ten years
> ago.  I don't know...this may only be because their distribution is
> wider now than it used to be...it's a global market now instead of a
> local one.  There's nothing magic about W&N except that they've been
> good and almost universally available for a long time.
>
> best
>
> argon
Received on Mon May 30 13:03:55 2005