Laura,
I applaud you. We had a technical course in art school where they taught us how to make egg tempera and oil paint. That was the end of homemade art supplies for me.
I have to say that the pastel sets were quite an investment. I could never make all the pastels sufficient to do one of my paintings as they are so large. The last one I finished '"Alicia Blue" is 53"x 68". She is posted in the
professional unveilings section.
Doesn't Kitty Wallis have more information for you? I remember calling them and they seemed to be quite forthcoming.
I did talk to the president of Great American. I like his pastels very much as they do not crumble like Senneliers and they have quite an extensive range of colors. He told me something very interesting vis-a-vis Senneliers. He told me that they had not changed their technology since they started, which had to be about 125? years ago. He started investigating new methods to come up with his product. He said he got started because he was a laid off computer engineer and took a course on color. That got him started. So the information is out there somewhere.
I wish I could be more help.