French Ultramarine

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞
Professional Handmade Watercolour

Swatch Painted on: Saunders Waterford, White, Rough, 100% Cotton, Mould Made, Acid Free, 300 gsm Watercolour Paper

Also Known As; Ultramarine Blue, French Ultramarine (Red Shade)

A rich transparent blue. Created by French chemist Guimet in 1828 as a synthetic but chemically identical alternative to the expensive pigment derived from Lapis Lazuli.

Our Process

Our process starts by using only the finest hand-picked Kordofan Gum Arabic Lumps and carefully blending with distilled water, this mixture is left for a few weeks until fully dissolved, we then strain this mixture through unbleached Muslin bags to remove any impurities like straw and sand which is naturally found on the gum when it falls onto the ground from the Acacia tree

Once fully strained we then add in the vegetable glycerine, a touch of biocide and gently blend using one of our mixers to ensure a smooth, fluid consistency

Once made this base mix then undergoes two weeks of quality control testing to ensure the highest possible quality

We then take the finished base mix and carefully mix in the dry pigment power(s) and any other auxiliary materials required to achieve the best possible dispersion of the pigment

Once the pigment is fully “wetted out” into a paste we carefully run this over our triple roll mill with ceramic rollers (we use ceramic rollers as metal rollers can adversely affect some pigments)

After the first run over the mill a sample of the paint is then run over our Hegman Gauge to test the fineness of the grind, we use this method to ensure the pigment has the same particle size as the previous batch, if not we run the paint over the mill again and again until we reach the desired grind

We then test viscosity, density and finally paint out a swatch of the colour against the original finalised paint test swatches

The final paint is then left for a further 2 weeks as part of our quality control process before being hand filled into our tubes, pots or pans and finally labelled

We recommend

Using distilled water with all our watercolours to keep each pigment at its purest form

Please feel free to message us with any questions you may have

Our watercolours are perfect for artists of all experiences from beginners to advanced who value high-quality materials

Check out our blog post on Ultramarine Pigments:

https://www.jackmansartmaterials.co.uk/blogs/news/ultramarine-pigments-in-depth

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
Pigment: Ultramarine Blue
Pigment c.i number: P.B 29
Series: 2
Lightfastness: AAA
Opacity: Semi-Opaque at full strength - very transparent when mixed with a little water