I was so delighted and grateful to get to visit Unison Colour Pastels, located very remotely in Northumberland National Park. They were very gracious showing us around their whole process of mixing, rolling out, trimming, drying, and boxing their pastels. Because they are so isolated, their pastels are shipped from a more accessible location.

They have spent years formulating their mixes, which are all recorded in the wall of notebooks in one of the photos.  They roll out the pastels on absorbent paper to speed up the drying time. Each color mixes a bit differently; some are more powdery, while others are heavier than others. Each is finicky on how it likes to be dried, either with heat, or not, fast or slow. Each mix needs to match exactly a standard of that color, so goes through many steps of testing and quality control. With so many variables in the process and ingredients, the consistency they achieve is remarkable.

To give you and idea why I love this beautiful product, I posted one of my paintings above which is entirely made of Unison Colour Pastels. The colors are vibrant and lightfast, and the texture is uniform over all the colors, which is not commonly true of many brands.

They sell only through their distributors, so I did not purchase any during my visit, although I was prepared to!  If you want to buy some to try them, you can do that here. For larger work, I especially love their big sticks which you can get here.

I am so appreciative of their warmth and hospitality in receiving us and showing us around. Not only is their product wonderful, but I found it inspiring that they’ve carved out a thriving global enterprise from the distant end of a warren of gorgeous one lane roads, in a rarely visited national park. The land and communities around them are exceptionally lovely and quiet. Their lifestyle is as carefully chosen, beautiful, and as cultivated as their product, which makes me want to support them even more. It is nice to know that is possible in this world.