Old Watercolor - Still Good? Ever Good?

I have a watercolor tray from the 1980s, maybe early 90s that was my grandmothers. I wonder if that is a thing that goes bad or not. It’s Pelikan brand 66/12. I don’t expect to take up watercolor myself, but I know some folks who do it and would pass it along if it was worthy. If not, I would probably keep the case-thing, because it’s kind of cool.

Try it…it is dried up anyway so add water and see what happens…I still have a kiddie set that I purchased in the early 1980’s! It has just the basic colors but I have used it. Dried up acrylics and oil paints are a different story…

Why didn’t I think to try? I will! But I wouldn’t know if Pelikan is good quality, because I have no idea how it’s supposed to act!

The brand name is a good one if it is the same company that makes fountain pens…does it have a symbol that looks like a pelican sitting on a nest (graphic style not realistic)?

Yup! German. A brief search showed their current things priced a bit lower than a lot of others, so it made me wonder if they weren’t as in demand.

So, I changed my search parameters and on a few lists of recommended watercolors it was not included and on a forum a few different users wouldn’t recommend this brand. So, I will probably not gift it, but maybe I can use it for other projects for colorwashing and whatnot.

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I think maybe it was meant for you…play and have fun…you can do the neatest things! Maybe it is meant to bring out the water color artist in you!

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Agreed!

You might find you love it and want to try more :hugs:

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Pelikan is a good brand!
Most ink for fountain pens over here used to be Pelikan.

And yes, I think you could still use it.

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I love Pelikan fountain pens! My dad collected them and so do I!

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Thanks everyone!

It should be perfectly fine - you’ll see when you add water whether or not it still dissolves easily. It sounds perfect for playing around and experimenting with! Hope you have a lot of fun :grinning: :art:

Even with old tube watercolour that’s dried up hard, you can still just cut the end off the tube and add some water to it - it’s often still usable.

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I’ve got tubes of watercolor from my dad in the 1980’s, and they are just as good as ever.

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