Two courgettes and good ingredients for paint
Two courgettes from the farmer’s market. A nub of local cheese from last night’s dinner. A jar of good white beans. Some pickles. A root around the salad drawer finds an onion, a papery clove of garlic and a forgotten bottle of Sussex fizz.
From these humble but really happily sourced leftovers, a delightful Sunday supper can be had. A medley of food that has been grown well, by people who care. The joy of no waste and the slightly giggly pleasure of eating things that don’t make a traditional meal yet make a feast.
The right ingredients sourced well and as locally as possible matters in food. It also matters in fashion. And I hope it matters in the world of ‘interiors’. As a business and a person, I draw from the great knowledge of the Slow Food movement. The complex nature of local, organic, less meat, more veg. No packaging and definitely no grapes from Chile (unless you live in Chile).
And by applying these principles to how and what we make our paint with, it makes hard choices easy and morally easy choices hard.
I have always taken the approach to avoid ‘preaching’ or claiming (this exciting pdf from the even more exciting British Coatings Federation is an excellent guide). I think you can back yourself into an unpleasant corner and perhaps take your eye off what is important.
For us it is making the best paint possible in our view of what this is - local, mostly unprocessed, minimal preservatives and good materials. Definitely no fungicide and very definitely not travelling the world to get to us. These choices also mean good, clean smelling paint which, once you have smelt it, raises so many questions about what paint should smell like.
And we happily share. It would be torturous to take the opposite approach.
All paint is made from a combination of filler, solvent, resin/binder, pigments, and extra additives. We then choose what the combination is and where it comes from. I think the recipe should read like a simple Sunday supper – easy, understandable, well sourced ingredients and no weird sauce.
So - a list of what goes in our True Matt Emulsion, where it comes from and why.
Filler
A balanced blend of dolomite and calcium carbonate in various particle sizes. This is to ensure great coverage and robustness. The PH stability of calcium carbonate also acts as a natural preservative, which allows us to have a lower amount of other preservatives. We source from Britain and no further processing is required.
Solvent
Filtered water from Britain.
Resin
Our wonderful binder is a bio-based resin, rather than the usual acrylic or vinyl. It is made from simple raw materials including sugar, bio ethanol and vegetable oil produced from waste crops, castor oil and/or linseed oil. This currently comes from Germany and it makes our paint smell lovely.
Pigments
Mostly earth or mineral based, with some man-made where we believe this is a better choice. Trace VOC only – which we believe is key. Britain and Europe sourced.
Additives
A thickener which is natural cellulose from wood pulp or cotton linter. This comes from Germany and is 0.1% of our paint.
The preservative which is Isothiazolinone, a manmade organic preserving compound. This is our only preservative and it is necessary, but we use as little as we can - 0.00015%. It is worth investigating the percentage and variety of preservatives used in paint as it does vary enormously. This is sourced in Britain
And finally a PH modifier. This is a natural ingredient to counteract variations found in other raw materials and to maintain the stability of the paint. It is 0.001% of the paint and is sourced in Britain.
Photography by Ellen Christina Hancock