3 Years Later: A paint-making journey! 🌈

About three years ago, we started making our own watercolors and putting them in donated bottle caps from local bars! Some of the original caps had glitter in them! We didn't write down any of the color formulas! It was pretty chaotic!!!

Now our watercolor and gouache caps cover the full rainbow and we actually write things down. :P We've got standard, single pigment colors for primary needs, but still have plenty of weird, sparkly colors inspired by things we love and care about. Our standard paints use local honey as part of the binder (and that's why we call them "Sticky Caps"), but our vegan paints use a special vegetable glycerin formula!

We have so many paints now they don't all fit in one display or one photo. (The right photo above only shows our watercolor standard pans and caps. It doesn't include our gouache caps or tubes, or our vegan watercolors!)

If you haven't tried our paints yet, now's a great time! We've got a full selection of individual caps and lots of fun sets and palettes! Get some for yourself, or the painter in your life, and let us know what you think!

TONIGHT, December 16, 6:00 PM: Join us at Hattie's Hat for our bimonthly Ballard Sketch Team, a super casual hang for artists! Bring your sketchbook and work on whatever while shooting the breeze with fellow creatives and catching up with what everyone's up to! 🍻FREE MEETUP.

Wednesday, December 17, 6:00 PM: This month's Drawing Techniques will cover using reference photos. It's not cheating!! And having reference doesn't automatically make things easier. It's an important skill to be able to use reference well, so let's learn it! ✏️

Thursday, December 18, 6:00 PM: Make time to work on your poetry! Join us at Part-Time Poets' Club as we create, craft, and tweak our poems to perfection! Or perhaps just a very reasonable stopping point. :P 💻 FREE MEETUP.

Friday, December 19, 5:30 PM: Are you a fiber artist? Do you like the idea of sketchbooks, but think it isn't really compatible with the art you do? Maybe learning how to Make an Embroidery Book will change your mind! Explore the possibilities! 🧵

Friday, December 19, 8:00 PM: Our monthly Figure Drawing session is here! No matter how many times you revisit it, the human body is beautiful, weird, and complicated. Whether you're brushing up your foundations or seeking deeper understanding of how the body moves, twists, bends, and settles, a live model helps, and company doesn't hurt! 👯‍♀️

Saturday, December 20, 10:00 AM: There are so many different nibs! Explore your options at Inking with Dip Pen and see what best suits you, your style, and the lines you're trying to achieve! ✒️

Saturday, December 20, 2:00 PM: Get a crash course into gouache with All About Gouache! It really is everything you need to get started with this amazing medium!🌲

Saturday, December 20, 6:00 PM: Whether you're a DM, GM, working on writing or drawing a fantasy epic, or just think maps are neat, Fantasy Map Making can help you make believable maps of believable worlds. 🗺️ NEW CLASS!

Sunday, December 21, NOON: Learn the basics of weaving and make yourself a fashionable accessory with Intro to Weaving: Cuff Bracelet! This technique uses a basic weave with a loom and wool or cotton yarn. Wood beads hold the bracelet closed. If you've been looking to get into fiber crafting, but crochet and knitting aren't speaking to you, weaving may be the answer. 🪢

Sunday, December 21, 3:00 PM: Struggling to find the perfect gift for the watercolorist in your life? Make Your Own Watercolor Paints to gift to them, or rope them into class and have them make their own! Learn all about how pigments and binder come together to make paints in this much-loved medium and go home with 3 colors you made yourself! 🎨🥣

What would you make as your lil 4x6 mini screen print design? Our monthly DIY Screen Printing class is a great way to learn about the process of screen printing in a hands on, low stakes environment!

Friday, December 26, 6:00 PM: Yes, the first event of next week is QU-ART on Friday! Escape holiday madness and chill out on the last Friday of 2025 with your fellow queer artists. Doodle, decompress, whatever! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ FREE MEETUP.

Saturday, December 27, 11:00 AM: This month's Watercolor Pet Portraits is SOLD OUT, but you can always plan for January! 🐦

Saturday, December 27, 2:30 PM: Or maybe you can screen print a pet portrait instead at DIY Screen Printing? Burn a cute fuzzy face onto a little screen and then print that lil guy on everything!!! 🐕

Sunday, December 28, NOON: December's Gouache Critters will feature FROGS! Do you like the long ones? The squat ones? The ones that are actually toads? Nerd out about these fun amphibians while getting started on building, brushing up on, or refining your gouache skills! 🐸

Sunday, December 28, 4:00 PM: There are always more holidays on the horizon... Design Your Holiday Cards on Risograph for New Years! For MLK Day? For Valentine's Day? For Lunar New Year? For a pet's birthday that everyone will need to know about? Make invitations! Make cards for all seasons! And learn about Risograph while you're at it! 📨📫

Sunday, December 28, 7:15 PM: Friends, it's been a long, long year!!!! So much has happened and so much keeps happening. Process it with friends and neighbours at Riff Raff League, and let's make plans for how we can stand together and fight back in the new year. 🫂 FREE MEETUP.

Monday, December 29, 1:00 PM: Close the year out with NEW SKILLS! Intro to Acrylic Painting is a 3-day class running December 29-31, Monday through Wednesday! Learn all the basics and use our supplies to paint! It's a great way decide if the medium is for you before investing in your own paints and canvas! 🎨

Monday, December 29, 6:00 PM: How are you supposed to price your work as an artist? Does it make sense to calculate it in this way? Or that way? In this economy??? Will people buy it at that price? All this and more at Taking Care of Business: Pricing Your Work, which is a pay-what-you-can workshop! 🤑

Tuesday, December 30, 5:30 PM: Need to fill your fantasy epic with people? Their steeds? Other creatures? Take inspiration from palentology and craft fantasy beings grounded in evolutionary science while still having fun with it at Fantasy Creatures from Dinosaurs with Jasper! 🦕

New class alert! Take inspiration from paleo art to craft Fantasy Creatures! 🦖 Explore what makes creatures realistic without losing what also makes them fantastical!