Blue Apatite Genuine - Apatite Bleue Véritable
Gorgeous in colour, Blue Apatite is a striking mineral rarely used in jewellery due to its relative softness. However, it is fantastic as an artist's pigment—a dense, rich midnight blue that granulates magnificently on cold or hot press papers.
Within a wash, nuances of colour are revealed, from inky near black to a rich, Prussian-like blue. Create a stormy sky in one juicy stroke!
- Pigment name: Genuine Blue Apatite - Véritable Apatite Bleue
- ASTM Lightfastness Rating: 1 Excellent
- Transparency: Transparent
- Granulating: Yes
- Staining: Non-staining
- Series: 4
The DANIEL SMITH PrimaTeks are gorgeous watercolours that mix beautifully with other colours. Since their introduction, artists worldwide have been thrilled to paint with these unique mineral watercolours, and you will be, too!
What are PrimaTek Watercolours?
DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek watercolours are unique paints made with mineral pigments; many are semi-precious minerals, mined from the earth, ground finely, and turned into beautiful PrimaTek watercolours for artists everywhere!
There are 37 exclusive DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolours made from minerals such as amethyst, bloodstone, and jadeite. The raw mineral specimens that DANIEL SMITH finds worldwide are ground into pigments, mixed with gum arabic, and milled to make those gorgeous watercolour paints! Nearly all PrimaTeks have granulating properties, giving these watercolours wonderful texture and depth, which some artists have described as "magical."
For thousands of years, people have been making paints with earth mineral pigments like ochre in yellows, reds, and browns. While many natural pigments tend towards the "earthy" colours like the ochres we know, some are unique to DANIEL SMITH, such as Hematite Genuine, Bloodstone Genuine, and Tiger's Eye Genuine. The "Genuine" after the mineral name for the watercolour usually means that the paint colours are made solely from that particular mineral pigment. When made into paints, nearly all these minerals exhibit beautiful granulation, providing artists with extra painting effects. A few have a hint of sparkle or sheen from the crushed crystals, such as Amethyst, Kyanite, Red Fuchsite, Sugilite, and both Bronzite and Burnt Bronzite Genuine watercolours.
Many DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolours are made from minerals that produce vibrant, luminous colours, such as Genuine Amethyst, Serpentine, and Rhodonite. Most artists are surprised that "rocks" can transform into such brilliant colours in watercolour!
DANIEL SMITH has a mineralogist who, like Indiana Jones, searches the world, sometimes in remote locations, to find minerals with the potential to become DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolours. Once he finds the raw mineral, the DANIEL SMITH chemist rigorously tests it for colour capacity and reliability, assessing how the mineral performs as paint, its lightfastness, and more. Once a mineral proves itself to meet DANIEL SMITH's high standards and what artists expect, it is made into a watercolour that delights artists everywhere.
To make the minerals into the watercolours, DANIEL SMITH breaks them down from large rocks called "massives" into smaller rocks, then continues breaking them down and removing impurities until the minerals are eventually ground into pigments. Once the pigments are ready, the DANIEL SMITH manufacturing team mixes them with gum arabic; the mixture is then put on a 3-roll mill and, after some time and tests, is made into DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek watercolours. The milling process for each watercolour is specific to that particular mineral pigment; if you mill (or grind) the minerals too small, the colour becomes dull.
The key is to ensure that each mineral pigment's particle size is large enough to refract the most light for the best colour and small enough to be used in watercolour. Every batch of watercolour is tested to meet DANIEL SMITH's standards for that particular watercolour, and the tests are kept to ensure the colour consistency that artists expect.
