Watercolor tutorial: how to make homemade binder

Learn the recipe and steps to make the classic binder you need to make watercolors at home with Scriptorium Yayyan.

Is there anything more crafty than painting your own watercolor paintings? Yes: doing it with watercolors made at home by ourselves!

Discover how to make the binder that will give body to our watercolors with Scriptorium Yayyan: we will use only six eggs, honey, water, gum arabic and clove essential oil. Gather the ingredients and let's go!

1. Prepare the egg whites

The first step is to separate and discard the yolks of half a dozen eggs and put the whites, which are the part we are interested in, in a bowl. Once we have separated them, we will beat them until they are stiff with a fork. Then, cover them with plastic film and let them rest overnight.

2. Prepare the mixture of honey and water
For this next step, we are going to use one volume of honey and mix it with one volume of water. We are going to put this mixture in a pot and boil it until it is reduced to one volume. For that, we are going to leave it for 5 to 10 minutes on the fire.

Remember to use distilled water to get the best possible results!

3. Mix all the ingredients
Time to create our mixture! We will recover the egg white that we had prepared ahead of time and we are going to prepare it by first removing the foam layer that will have been left on the surface, as we are not going to need it.

We will filter the remaining liquid to remove any pieces of shell that may have remained there, and we will mix two volumes of this with two volumes of gum Arabic and one volume of honey. Once it is all together, add a few drops of clove essential oil to act as a preservative and let the mixture stand. If there is any unwanted sediment or foam from the egg white, it can be easily removed with a spoon.

4. How to preserve the mixture?
The best way to keep our binder is to use opaque jars, since they will filter the light and will give a longer life to our mixture. Although it contains egg, if we store it at room temperature it can last from one to two months.

And our binder is ready! Do you dare to make your own watercolors?
If you liked this tutorial, remember that you can learn with Scriptorium Yayyan to create your own color palette from traditional recipes in their online course 'Making handmade watercolors'.

You may be interested in:
- Creating color palettes with watercolor.
- Calligraphy with water brushes for beginners.
- Experimental watercolor techniques for beginners.