The Craft of Pigment Making Online Foundation Course [Pre-Sale]

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Course Commencement: 

Saturday 1st February 2025

Introduction

Master the craft of sustainable pigment-making in this course, where you’ll learn to create high-quality paint from scratch using natural pigments, organic binders, and eco-friendly additives sourced from your surroundings.

Ideal for creatives looking to deepen their Earth conscious practices, this course guides you in transforming local materials and waste into vibrant, usable pigments and paints. Explore designing custom colour palettes, experimenting with colour and pigment properties, and applying these techniques to a wide range of projects—from personal art to large-scale designs—while keeping environmental impact at the forefront.

London Pigment founder and experienced lecturer in the field of pigments (V&A London, TATE, British Museum), will guide you through the physical & chemical processes of pigment making whilst instilling the material with her unique outlook on the subject.

Further Information

Throughout the course, you’ll gain hands-on skills to design custom, authentic colour palettes and finishes that suit a variety of applications. While we’ll cover core historical categories of pigments and binders, we’ll also explore how to create dynamic effects and captivating finishes with local found materials.

Who is this course for? This course is ideal for anyone passionate about colour and sustainable practice, from artists and architects to designers in fields like fashion, interior, textile, and beyond. Whether you’re looking to create bespoke, eco-friendly finishes for large-scale projects or add sustainability to a personal practice, the techniques taught here are versatile and applicable across a range of disciplines. Participants will come away with actionable methodologies to incorporate into a wide range of practices. This course will help inspire & create authentic colour palettes within the digital realm.

Course Highlights:

• Pigment Creation: Learn to source and process natural pigments from eco-conscious sources, including waste streams, for a sustainable colour-making process. Regenerative or waste stream sources such as plant matter, urban waste streams and local clays will be explored in detail.
• Binder and Additive Know-How: Discover how to create organic binders and select safe, eco-friendly additives to enhance the longevity and quality of your paints.
• Multi-Disciplinary Applications: Gain methodologies for applying these sustainable techniques across architecture, interior and exterior design, textiles, fashion and personal projects.

Course Outcomes

All course content will be published and accessible through the website on February 1st for you to follow and digest at your own pace. You will be able to login using credentials we send to you. All video content will be available to view for 6 months with all accompanying content downloadable for you to keep. On completion of the course, you’ll have the skills to create sustainable paint, develop environmentally conscious colour palettes, and implement your new knowledge across a variety of creative and professional contexts, including:

• Earth Pigments Process pigments from found & purchased earth, clay and minerals. Learn how to transform their colours with heat. 
• Lake Pigments Create artist-grade botanical colours from local plant sources. 
• Pigments From Found Materials Source, process & apply pigments to your practice using materials procured from your local wastes streams.
• Sourcing Binders, Making Paints & Special Finishes We will make a range of water based, oil and solvent based art materials. That include; oil paint from various types of drying oils, mediaeval ink recipes and tinted varnishes & gesso grounds.
• Historical Recipes With A Modern Twist Using historical recipes for madder and verdigris (amongst others) we will experiment with found materials and modern techniques to fuse old practices with the new.

Whatever your creative field this course will inspire you to reconsider your use of colour with fresh intention, creativity, and respect for the environment.

The course will be divided into the five modules above with each one accompanied by:

• Pre-recorded lessons with specially designed worksheets
• PDF of recipes with diagrams and flow charts of methodologies covered
• Reading & suppliers list
• London Pigment product suggestions

Purchase Options:

• Online Course Only

• Online Course + Paint Making Set Get started with the complete and essential range of tools to accompany the course content, perfect for use at home or in the studio. Includes miniature glass paint muller & grinding plate; set of 4 x pigments in 20 ml glass bottles sealed with wax; gum Arabic binder to make watercolour paint; printed watercolour paint recipe.

• Online Course + Deluxe Paint Making Set Everything in the paint making set, this time with 9 pigments, each in beautiful and unique handblown glass bottles, specifically designed to inspire colour combinations or adorn your studio as a rare collector’s item.

Please note: the pigments on offer in the sets are made in incredibly small batches and so colours will vary. Each set will have a unique & wide variety of colours & particle sizes. 

Cut off dates for pre-Christmas deliveries:
16.12.24 (within the UK & EU)
07.12.24 (other worldwide destinations)