One Box To Rule Them All

In the Manuscript Illumination class I recently took, we were working with two color palettes. Traditional red, blue, green and blue, green, purple. Painting and shading colors were mixed in two 6 well palettes.  The instructor also gave us a sheet of other color palettes.

I wanted one box to keep everything in instead of having to carry 3 or more of the 6 well palettes. The 6 well palettes are nice, deep to hold enough color to work with, but they don't come with a lid to keep out dust.

My quest began with searching for an empty paint tin and empty pans to hold the paints. Happily, I found both at Dick Blick. by Schminke.

 I chose a tin that could hold 24 full pans of watercolor or 48 half pans. I chose the full pans. The tin is sturdy. Measures 4 1/2 in. x 9 in. when closed. It opens up in a gate fashion which provides two white enamel mixing surfaces. Everything I wanted. I have a paint tin that hold the colors I want to use, has a lid to keep the dust out, and isn't too large or too heavy to travel with.  That's the up-side.

The downside is the cost of the tin should have included a full set of paints. The only thing I can figure is the tin hinges must be made of gold.