After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette.

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:26:55 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:26:55 GMT

Both versions of the Field Brush Box are long-since discontinued, and Winsor & Newton don't make anything like them, any longer.

Here it is, closed, inside the Sistema Bake It box I use for travel art supplies:

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:24:41 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:24:41 GMT

This is a photograph of my vintage Winsor & Newton Series 7 Field Brush Box. It includes a plastic storage box (same as the Cotman 18 half pan box, but different interior), three Series 7 finest Kolinsky sable retractable #travel #watercolor brushes (Sizes 0, 3, 5), one Size 10 synthetic wash brush, a pencil, a natural sponge, and a kneaded eraser. This sold for about $100 USD, 30-35 years ago. There was also a Cotman version of it, for a lot less money, maybe $25-30? #artsupplies

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:03:17 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:03:17 GMT

The quality of #artsupplies since I was in the business in the early-mid 1990s, has dropped dramatically in many sectors, with the rise of the computer and the digital camera and the smartphone gutting the market ever since, coupled with the inability of traditional Western suppliers to compete with Chinese manufacturing.

However, in many ways, the products that are still high quality, are less expensive relative to incomes, now. Professional quality paints are much cheaper, now.

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:52:15 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:52:15 GMT

Only the actual pans are made of plastic, although the "enamel" isn't really enamel, at all, I think, just paint, and that's why they stain so readily, if you use pigments with high staining properties on them, like most of the modern organic pigments, especially phthalocyanine blues and greens, and dioxazine violets.

But, they also have the advantage of allowing you to use as much or as little paint as you desire, making them even lighter in weight for travel.

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:41:51 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:41:51 GMT

The typical stamped steel with plastic pans portable #watercolor #sketchbox is lightweight and inexpensive.

Its downside is the quality of current models being made in China pales in comparison to the quality of vintage examples that were made in the UK, Europe, and the US.

The enamel will stain and flake off, resulting in eventual corrosion, but they are modular, very cheap, a de facto standard, and readily available. They can be replaced; being made mostly of steel, they are recyclable.

Reply to After looking around at all the options I could find, I ordered a Bower Bird mini ceramic #travel #watercolor mixing #palette. on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:33:40 GMT

gcvsa@mstdn.plus — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:33:40 GMT

If I like it enough, I may order a second one with smaller wells on top to use to put the actual paints in the small wells. They have many different versions, in two different sizes, the one shown above, and a size that fits a standard 12 half pan portable sketchbox. However, ceramic is much less important for a storage palette than it is for a mixing palette.

My existing vintage Winsor & Newton palettes, examples of which I showed earlier, are both far too large and heavy for portable use.