Making a Mini Watercolor Travel Palette out of Scrapwood

Let‘s make a wooden DIY watercolor palette that is super small and extra light weight out of some pieces of scrap wood and leather. Not related to the video in any way but very cool nonetheless: Check out my art-prints and other stuff in the East Of Awesome shop: https://eastofawesome.com/shop

A R T S U P P L I E S

Watercolors: As I said in the video, I use very old ones I got gifted a long time ago. They are from Russia and I was told they were super cheap there (more than 15 Years ago) and better than everything than you could get here in Germany for 10 times the money. Don‘t know if thats true but I also own a little Schminke set and those are super nice but … somehow I always preferred the old Russian ones … *(see off-topic footnotes regarding Russia at the bottom)

Either way, this is the small Schminke palette I own and can recommend for someone looking for a ‚ready-to-go-solution‘:
https://amzn.to/3NZjt0l

And if you want to make your own palette and don’t have already some colors lying around I would go for a small set of tubes wich would be a little easier to fill into the small pans: https://amzn.to/3tfcQPA

Travel Brushes: I had some old ones since the dawn of time that I modified to be even smaller and also for my usecase I really only need one mid-sized brush.
But because (obviously) I am a somewhat shallow person and care too much about the look of things I would prefer to have one with a copper colored handle or a black handle like the ones from these sets:
Expensive Option: https://amzn.to/3MeJgA9
Cheap Option: https://amzn.to/3xgPJpU


TOOLS I USED
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(or similar stuff I could find links to)

A Small Bench Vice similar to mine: https://amzn.to/3xhGTbK
Victorinox Hiker Walnut Wood Swiss Army Knife https://amzn.to/3Nl6ndM

W O O D W O R K I N G

Japanese RYOBA Handsaw: https://amzn.to/3N9jtdM
(Best handsaw. Period. Note: Japanese saws work on pull instead of push. Watch a quick tutorial if you never used one)

Japanese SHINTO Saw Rasp: https://amzn.to/3N9jtdM
(What an amazing tool to shape and refine wood)

A chisel set I would love to have by German manufacturer KIRSCHEN: https://amzn.to/3kWFNen
(But I bought 4 rather cheap ones when I just started getting a little bit into woodworking and they are holding up and are fine for how much I use them so far … something like that: https://amzn.to/3N7Aq8o)

Wooden Mallet: Got mine from my grandfather along with my carving knife. I suggest to get a used one. Looks 10 times more awesome, works the same and is probably cheaper: https://shorturl.at/puIW9
(current ebay results for used mallets)

L E A T H E R C R A F T

Leather Skiving Knife: https://amzn.to/3yuuIt9
(only if you can sharpen it properly yourself)
Edge Beveling Tool: https://amzn.to/3mgS65O
(for thinning out the fold)
Stainless Steel Ruler like this: https://amzn.to/397NpIk …
A nice big cutting mat: https://amzn.to/37zNVOR

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OFF-TOPIC FOOTNOTES

When I grew up with one of my best friends being Russian I experienced Russian culture as a warm mix of hospitality, love of arts and literature and getting beaten hard in chess. And strong alcohol along with deliberately prepared food of course.
Let‘s hope we‘ll eventually get back to a point where one can associate stuff like that with this country without thinking of war and suppression first.

Quick recommendation for a book I just finished: In ‚The Master and Margarita‘ the Devil visits 1930s Moscow for a wonderfully wild and anarchic trip through Soviet society. The author Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiew, volunteered with the Red Cross during first World War as medical doctor and worked in the Ukrainian People's Army as physician. Later he got stuck in Moscow and focussed on his writing wich often criticized and ridiculed the Soviet system and therefore got mostly banned by the Stalin regime while he himself never got permission to leave Russia.
So I feel like it‘s kind of a good time to read Bulgakov: https://amzn.to/3x6Pdd4
(Also I love the cover art and design for this edition so much, I might also have to get this english edition at some point)