“When I took up painting last year, my children were like, ‘you’re buying watercolours? Why won’t you make them?’

“That’s the prevailing ‘attitude’ in this household,” she says, laughing.

“My family and I try to minimise waste as much as possible in our daily lives,” says the 39-year-old, adding that she didn’t want her art supplies to create more trash.

Inevitably, the mother of four began making her own watercolours, using various mineral and botanical pigments.

While her pigments are sourced from France, Aida uses Malaysia’s very own Tualang honey and acacia gum to make the binder. She then suspends the pigments to the binder in a process called mulling.

She also painstakingly makes the individual watercolour pans by hand, using batik fabric brushed with local beeswax.

“I use beeswax wrappers a lot in my life, so I thought it would be a good idea to use beeswax for the pans and packaging,” she explains, adding that “it’s a small step towards sustainable, plastic-free art practices”.

Aida started selling her watercolour sets in January this year, after receiving positive feedback from friends. So far, she has concocted 25 colours, with an additional 11 pastel colours to be introduced later this month.

Besides being safer to use, Aida says that her watercolours have a high concentration of pigments, compared to commercial ones which usually come with fillers.

Aida says the response from the public has been truly encouraging.

“I’m not very business-minded; I’m more of a maker, but so far, the art community has been really supportive.

“In the beginning, I wondered if people would buy them, but a lot of people do support local products,” she tells FMT.

Equally popular are the handsewn artist rolls that can be used to store art tools and supplies.

Aida says that the main challenge in making watercolours is working alone, although she doesn’t mind this aspect of her job so much as she often loses herself in her work.

“From waxing the fabric, making the paint, playing with it, to creating content for Instagram – the whole process is so much fun. I can’t complain,” she exclaims.

Prior to this, Aida was making and selling her own soaps.

“It wasn’t such a popular thing when I ventured into soapmaking nine years ago,” she says, explaining that she learnt the process through books and experimentation.

In the near future, she plans to venture into gouache, “which is basically a more opaque version of watercolours”.

A chemical engineer by training, Aida opted out of the nine-to-five hustle in order to focus on bringing up her children as well as to live a more self-sufficient life.

“I home-school my children. I’m learning with them as I teach them,” she says, adding that since her youngest turned four, she has had more time to focus on her business.

Besides sewing, which she got into 15 years ago, Aida also enjoys knitting, while her husband tends to a small edible garden.

For those interested in reducing their waste, Aida recommends joining the various zero waste groups out there for more support and ideas.

Unsurprisingly, Aida dreams of the day when she is able to be rid of all the chemical products in her home.

Despite being relatively new to watercolour painting, Aida is pretty good at it, as can be seen from the artwork she posts on Instagram from time to time.

“I keep telling everyone that if I can do it, anyone can.

“It’s a skill you can learn.”

To buy Aida’s natural watercolours, check out Aidafiqs Handmade on Shopee.

You can also follow her paint-making journey on Instagram and Facebook.