What is sizing? Can you paint on old watercolour paper? 

Interesting! I am SO sorry for your loss! 😮 I have inherited a whole treasure trove of massive sheets of Arches paper that has got to be 10+ years old and I’ve been pleasantly surprised that it’s still good! Makes me want to use it quicker though! I wonder if their sizing is different from Saunders enough to make it last longer?

Hi Marion, I also have a large amount of old watercolour paper, and some of it is Saunders Waterford and has also lost its sizing. I have been told - although I haven’t yet done it myself - that you can buy some alum crystals and make up a solution which you can paint onto the paper which will enable you to be able to paint Watercolour on it. I think I’ll give it a try. I don’t know how it would work with the wet and wet technique, but I think if you use gouache it would be okay also. Another idea someone suggested was to put a thin coat of Daniel Smith’s watercolour ground on the paper - could be tricky though with such a large sheet. I must get round to trying out a couple of these ideas as I do have an awful lot of spoilt paper. I inherited it from somebody who died and it was already old before that! Good luck with your channel! Glad I saw this one, at least I know I’m not alone!

Learnt so much! Thank you.

Thank you for your video, do you know what to do with this paper? Can it be fixed?