Salty Times

Just an FYI... I am attempting to re-enact my popular Majestic Mountains / Aurora Borealis lesson with my fifth graders. For those of you who attempted to do this project and could not get the same result with the watercolor manipulation I wanted to share a few tips. 

(I did not use Saran wrap to create a texture this time 

because I forgot to bring it to work so we just did salt today- I love the saran wrap though.)

However- to get these color combinations---

I specifically use the leftover purple/brown/black (and blue if there is any left) which end up being the leftovers at the end of the watercolors and are perfect for mountains--- from the crappy Prang non-refillable watercolors that I have bought by accident a few times. For some reason I do not understand- if you sprinkle salt on their black paint it creates a pink crystallization effect specifically with this type of paint. 

I also used 90lb paper instead of watercolor paper this time and it worked just fine. 

So there you have it- I'm revealing my sources... 

I will report back soon with how my second go at the gorgeous mountain project turns out.