The Advanced Grounds Set contains sixteen different fillers (extender pigments) in a boxed set that is an excellent introduction to making your own grounds and mediums and a great gift for the art student. The set is especially useful for exploring the function and behavior of different fillers in grounds and painting mediums.
Sixteen natural minerals are included in this set to introduce you to extender pigments and their function in grounds and painting mediums. The set includes 4 vol oz. jars each of:
| Set Contents | |
| This dry ground natural gypsum (calcium sulfate) is made according to an old process near Siena, Italy. Gesso Oro per Indoratori is quarried and processed in Colle Val d'Elsa, the birthplace of Cennino Cennini, in the same locale where he obtained his gesso for "gesso sottile." Gesso (Italian for gypsum) was used before the Renaissance and mixed with animal collagen glue size to prepare wood panels and frames for painting and to adhere to gold leaf. | |
| Our talc is dry ground from natural ores in Montana. Use as an additive to make grounds and for adding texture and body to paints. | |
| The finest whiting for making brilliant white chalk grounds. Our whiting is dry ground from limestone deposits in the Lucerne Valley, California. Dry grinding limestone reduces it to a powder without destroying its particle structure, which is important in making strong chalk grounds and providing tooth on the surface of the grounds. The larger particle size of our chalk (when compared to precipitated chalk) keeps oil absorption low, which is ideal when adding it to oil paint and mediums. In painting grounds, it makes a durable surface with a tooth for egg and casein tempera, distemper, encaustic, and oil paint. | |
| A natural mineral imported from Bologna, Italy composed of monoclinic prismatic crystals of hydrated calcium sulfate-carbonate. This is finely-ground whiting that combines the advantages of both chalk (calcium carbonate) and gypsum (calcium sulfate) for making painting and gilding grounds that are brilliant white. | |
| Alabaster (also called satin spar) is a natural crystalline mineral of hydrated calcium sulfate mined near Volterra (between Florence and Sienna), Italy. Softer than chalk (3 Mohs scale of mineral hardness), its hardness of 1.5 to 2 makes a soft white gesso that is easier to polish to a smooth finish for gilding bases and painting grounds. Calcite or chalk, being a carbonate, effervesces on exposure to acids, whereas gypsum alabaster, when so treated, remains practically unaffected. | |
| Kaolinite is a clay mineral, also known as China clay or kaolin. Calcined kaolin clay is used as a functional extender in paint. Kaolin clay is also used in grounds, such as for painting and gilding. | |
| Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that is processed so that it is greatly expanded and white. It can be used in painting grounds to increase the bulk and give texture to paint. | |
| Our muscovite mica is a wet ground mineral used for applications requiring greater resistance to moisture, heat, light, or chemicals and to add decorative effects, such as pearlescence. | |
| Terra alba is natural gypsum that can be used as an extender in paint and filler in grounds. Terra alba, calcium sulfate dihydrate, is made by fine grinding and an air separating a select, high purity, white gypsum from Italy containing about 20% water of crystallization. | |
| Fine and Medium marble dust. Free-flowing, dry ground marble from natural calcite deposits with controlled particle size. Use this marble powder to make grounds and for adding texture and body to paint. | |
| This is the highest quality white, natural barium sulfate ore. Its unique properties of fine grind (3-micron median particle size), high specific gravity (4.4), and chemical inertness make it ideal for grounds, to make white paint, and as paint filler. | |
| This is a high purity, natural crystalline silica that comes from quartz quarries in Oklahoma. It is a fine ground silica sand that is inherently inert, white, bright and is at least 99.2% silicon dioxide. Special processing assures a controlled particle size distribution, which eliminates excessively coarse and fine particles. These properties, combined with its inertness and low cost, make silica an excellent filler and extender for paint. | |
| Fine Nepheline syenite is a micronized functional filler and extender used as a performance enhancer in a broad range of paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, and inks. Excellent brightness, tint retention, and weatherability can be achieved in paints. Improved color, sheen uniformity, chemical and stain resistance, and durability result when it is used in interior paint formulations. It is easily dispersed in all conventional vehicle systems, and low oil absorption permits high loadings in adhesives, sealants, and aqueous and alkyd-based paints. | |
| Fine Wollastonite is a calcium metasilicate mineral that exhibits lower viscosity in paint than is indicated by its oil absorption value. The low oil absorption characteristic of wollastonite enables you to reduce raw material costs by replacement of the vehicle. The relatively high pH (10–11) of wollastonite is particularly useful in maintaining the desired alkaline pH level of water-based paints and preventing the early rusting of water-based coatings. Wollastonite is an excellent extender pigment for powder coatings as well as solvent-based and waterborne paints. | |