Last night I was preparing a crate for my demo at the museum Saturday by chopping up papers with my guillotine paper cutter* and putting the squares in zipper bags. Because I want to show the progress from raw materials to finished product, I should show each stage of the process. I had some davey board bases for small collages, but they needed a coat of paint for color and the seal. I have packed up the gesso but found a small tub of zinc white in my crate. My other acrylic paints and water colors have been boxed, too. I went upstairs to the studio and ascertained that all my other water based media are also in storage. I was in a dither. Although I could go with stark white borders, by the time the collages were done, they'd need a repaint. By this time I was looking for stains and inks, sepia or black would do, but I had disappeared them as well. So I started tearing through what junk remains and aha! Behind the old leather cased microscope and next to the disecting tools were some tiny boxes. German inks! I shook them and one was still liquid! I ran downstairs with it and droppered a whole lot into the mixing tin. Cobalt blue tusch, old enough to be real...and real enough to turn the zinc white vivid. I was transfixed by the glow and made happy by painting untill bedtime. Now I've got a sheet of bright blue squares ready.
*Although mine's an antique, this link illustrates that the tool in question is not a miniature beheader, Snay.