Jacquard Gum Arabic, 1 Ounce (JAC1648)

I bought a bunch of mica powder and had lots left over. I found a YouTube video on what to do with mica powder and thought watercolors would be a great idea. This jar comes with a tiny plastic spoon and the video suggested one part gum Arabic to four parts mica powder. Then I dropped in distilled water and stirred until it was mixed, then poured into an empty paint palette. It worked great!!! The video showed how to mix the mica powder and gum Arabic with a heavy glass plate and a glass pestle (I think that is what they called it. Its the piece you hold when you grind your own spices in a heavy bowl called a mortar and pestle). I'm not sure why they felt they needed to grind the powders together. The mica powder was really soft and so is this gum arabic. I didn't have any lumps at all. The gum arabic dissolved immediately. Maybe this is just great gum arabic. Jacquard has always been a good brand. I made up 21 colors of shimmer paint and filled 21 palette half pans and still half half a jar of gum arabic left, so it goes a long way. I usually use Winston Newton liquid gum arabic in my watercolors but it was quite pricey. I'm really glad I tried this product.

It does exactly what I needed it to do - turns my beautiful fountain pen inks into calligraphy inks. Everything writes just that much better, dries that much better, and looks that much better. Obviously, don't mix it right into the ink bottle - use a syringe and a scoop and mix it in a separate container, but the results are gorgeous no matter the paper.

Been using this as a watercolor paint medium. I am still experimenting with it as a soft resist, a gloss agent, and even for my brushes. One of my precious round brushes fell while drying overnight from its clip. It landed on the tip and bent it while drying. The horror was real the next day when I discovered my fine point had dried bent like that. So I used some of this in a rather heavy solution and carefully rolled the brush bristles straight, let it dry completely, and was absolutely amazed that the brush recovered perfectly when I dissolved the gum. Now any time a brush starts to fray or lose shape the least bit, this is my go to solution.When blended with watercolor, it does give more of a nice satiny texture and slows drying. I am sure there are other uses I've yet to discover, but for now, I couldn't be more pleased that I chose this brand. I haven't even had a chance to try it with other mediums like ink yet, but I look forward to it!

Ingot this to make watercolors and it worked really good for me. After mixing this with the mica powder and water i transfer it to a watercolor pan. It takes about 2 days to dry and to be ready to use. I wish it was bigger but it is great for the low price.

I guess you can thicken gravy with this. I bought it to thicken ink. Made a batch of gold sparkle ink with gold mica powder. Four parts color powder, 1 part gum Arabic and about 1 part water. Teaspoon measure made a bunch of ink for calligraphy. Gum Arabic thickens ink and makes it stick to paper otherwise mica would rub off paper when dry. This ink is not waterproof.

I use this gum Arabic for making natural inks to get the viscosity I need for the ink to flow off a nib pen without feathering on the paper. But it is also good for making watercolors. I had no issues with it dissolving or working as expected. I trust the manufacturer for quality products so it’s worth the price, especially since it lasts so long!

As expected product

I liked this Gum Arabic it really does to set your micas so they don’t brush off.