Reviving Watercolor

I had a tube of watercolor that had dried up and was rock hard.  It wouldn't squeeze out of the tube. That doesn't usually bother me because I can just cut open the tube and rewet the paint with my brush.  However, my husband put some of these empty paint tubes in my Christmas stocking, and I have been dying to use them.

 So I put the hard cakes of dried up paint in a little dish and soaked it in water.  I covered the dish with plastic wrap for several days and left it.  It absorbed all of the water but was not completely soft.  So I put some drops of gum arabic on the cakes and mashed it all together with several makeshift tools.  I did not have a muller, but found some rounded objects and ground it all together.  Then I used a palette knife to blend it until it was a smooth texture.  I scraped it into the bottom of the empty tube. I poked down in the tube with a toothpick several times to release air bubbles.  Then I used a paper towel to clean up around the bottom opening.  I folded the  bottom several times and then took it to my husbands vice.  I pinched it with the vice, being careful not to pierce the tube.  Voilà- a new (ish) tube of Ultramarine! Not necessary but Fun.