Tech Talk: Replacing your Mission Gold paints

For those who have been following the reports I've made on my tests of Mission Gold watercolors, I have some encouraging news to share.  I have been in email conversations since late June with Dennis Kapp, the Chairman of the Martin F. Weber Company -- the distributor of Mission Gold -- and he has asked me to share this offer.

As previously reported, according to Mr. Kapp, Mission Gold has reformulated 50 of the 90 colors in the original line, replacing pigments of poor lightfastness with more dependable ones.  Mr. Kapp is offering to replace any fugitive color from the old line with its lightfast equivalent from the newly formulated colors.  It doesn't matter if the tubes have been used, or even emptied.  As long as you still have the tubes, you can return them for replacement.

To receive replacements, send your old tubes* of fugitive colors -- along with your snail mail return address -- to:

Dennis Kapp

4444 Lawton Street

Detroit, MI 48208
 
Phone: 313-895-0700

You will receive, by return mail, a new tube of the equivalent color for each tube of the fugitive colors that you send in.

I am sharing this news in the interest of my readers, but I do not have a full list of pigments used in the original line and cannot answer questions about specific colors.  You can check my previous blog post for details on the colors I tested.  I believe some of the same pigments were used in making other colors as well, so you may be able to determine whether you have fugitive colors by checking the labels on your tubes and comparing pigments to those covered in my review.

For those interested in learning more about pigments, I recommend two websites -- Art is Creation and Handprint -- or books by Michael Wilcox and Hilary Page.

* I'm adding my suggestion: Out of consideration for the people who will be opening your returns, remember to pack the tubes in something that will prevent them from being squashed and ruptured in the mail.