Good News: Caran d’Ache

I am very glad to be the messenger of such good news.

Caran d’Ache sent me their certificate of compliance .

I contacted them for products free of animal derivatives  – including manufacturing process- and for their cruelty-free status. And good tidings I bring.

Please see the Caran D’Ache certificate of compliance and pay attention to exceptions in product lines. Some products contain the pigment ivory black, which is of an animal source.

Neither products nor raw materials get tested on animals.

 

the cruelty-free status of Caran d’Ache
  • Caran d’Ache does not test on animals
  • does not commission other parties to do so.
  • their raw material suppliers do not test on animals nor commission animal testing for raw materials sourced by the company
  • Caran d’Ache does not use MSDS/ Material Safety Data Sheets, which data was collected through animal testing in the last decades.

 

Product lines free of animal derivatives (with exceptions of products containing the pigment ivory black):

Caran d’Ache – certificate of compliance issued September 13th, 2023

Source: mail contact

2021: updated cruelty-free and vegan-friendly guidelines PDF

Here is my 2021 updated information sheet with guidelines for a cruelty-free company and vegan-friendly and vegetarian-friendly products, which I send out to companies.

At your disposal:

English Version (PDF)

German Version (PDF)

I have resumed sending out enquiries to update and broaden my compendium.

All the best,

 

 

New enquiries sent out: Faber-Castell, Umton, St. Petersberg watercolours, Nevskaya Palitra

New product  enquiries sent out to:

  • Faber-Castell
  • Umton
  • St. Petersburg watercolours (White Nights; English branch)
  • Nevskaya Palitra

To all, who have sent enquiries to me about companies (and products) that I have yet to contact: I have not forgotten any of you, I will pick up where I left off. Thank you for your patience.

 

Sadly, Colors of Nature closed down

Dear watercolour people,

sadly, I just found out that  Colors of Nature closed down. The cruelty-free Canadian company that flew under an ethical and environmentally conscious flag, manufactured and offered only vegan-friendly products ranging from watercolours,  and oil paints in artist quality, … over to brushes, glass mullers and more. I feel as though I am writing an obituary and in a way I am. What a plight for our small world of vegan art supplies. Which leaves us with no more natural, eco-friendly oil paints ;and brands that offer non-pencil watercolours halved. I introduced the company on here in 2017. In all my correspondence with Lori Stryker and Mark, they were nothing but accommodating and nice. – I am sorry to see this business go, farewell Colors of Nature.

Source: website

Kaia Natural Watercolor

 

Hello there,

I bring lovely watercolour news (especially to Europeans)! Kaia Natural Watercolor is a cruelty-free company based in the Netherlands, offering all vegan, 100% natural, plastic-free, non-toxic, highly pigmented watercolour of professional artist quality and highest lightfastness. What a mouth full. They come in ten different shades . They are available as single pans or in a set of all ten.

Source: mail contact; website

 

C.Kreul additional products

Vegan-friendly products by C.Kreul newly added to my list are:

  • Solo Goya Tempera Gouache
  • Solo Goya Pouring Liquid
  • Solo Goya Aqua Paint Marker

-Information about more products to come in the new year-

Here my C.Kreul product list:

  • Javana fabric paints
  • Javana Textil Potch
  • Javana texi mäx glitter, opak and sunny
  • Javana Phantom Pen
  • Javana Laundry Marker
  • Kreul Textil Liner
  • Hobby Line Acrylic Gloss, Satin and Matt Varnish
  • Hobby Line Art Potch (Varnish & Glue)
  • Hobby Line Foto Transfer Potch
  • Hobby Line Gemstone Glue
  • Solo Goya Glossy Varnish (Picture Varnish; Gemäldefirnis)
  • Solo Goya Matt Varnish (Picture Varnish; Gemäldefirnis)
  • Solo Goya Fixative
  • Solo Goya Acrylic Paints
  • Solo Goya Art Acryl Basic
  • Solo Goya Triton Acrylic Paint Marker
  • Solo Goya Tempera Gouache
  • Solo Goya Pouring Liquid
  • Solo Goya Aqua Paint Marker
  • Kreul Pic Tixx Pens, with the exception of Pic Tixx Candle Pens, those are vegetarian-friendly

PAPER:

  • Kreul Paper Water Color
  • Kreul Paper Mixed Media
  • Kreul Paper Sketching
  • Solo Goya Paper Sketching
  • Solo Goya Paper Water Color
  • Solo Goya Paper Oil Color
  • Solo Goya Triton Acrylic Pad

CANVAS

  • Kreul Canvas Board
  • Kreul Stretched Canvas
  • Solo Goya Stretched Canvas Basic Line
  • Solo Goya Stretched Canvas Premium Line

And Following products are vegetarian friendly:

  • Kreul Pic Tixx Candle pens
  • Chalky chalk paint
  • Solo Goya Triton Acylic Paints (several colours are only vegetarian-friendly)

Source: Mail contact

Faber-Castell’s ink and broadpen

The broadpen,Faber-Castell ink and their synthetic brush range are  products newly added to my Faber-Castell list of vegan-friendly products.

  • broadpen: document proof, 0,8mm line width, 12 available shades; lovely for writing – my favourites are turquoise, blue and black
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink : available in four colours: black, blue, pink and turqoise; the shades blue and pink are erasable; black and turquoise cannot be erased; the ink is not document proof; (the waterproof and lightfast alternative by Faber-Castell are the Graf von Faber-Castell inks)

Here is the list of vegan-friendly products by Faber-Castell:

  • Gelatos
  • Polychromos coloured pencils
  • Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
  • regular erasers, kneadable erasers, pencil erasers
  • all Pitt Artist products
  • Pitt Artist pen and brush pen
  • Pitt calligraphy pen
  • Pitt Artist pen metallic
  • Pitt Artist pen sanguine /Rötel Pitt Artist
  • black lead / graphite pencils/Bleistifte
  • graphite aquarelle pencils
  • Art Grip aquarelle pencils
  • Pitt Pastel Pencils
  • jumbo lead pencils
  • mechanical pencils
  • mechanical pencil refills; coloured and lead ones
  • Pastel crayon Polychromos
  • paper wiper Estompe
  • soft pastels
  • oil pastel crayons
  • foldable watercup
  • Charcoal  natural Pitt/ Zeichenkohle
  • sharpener
  • Pitt Monochrome
  • Ecco Pigment
  • Grip lead pencils and mechanical pencils
  • Grip Textmarker & Textliner
  • Multimark Marker
  • Art & Graphic Water Brush
  • Graf von Faber-Castell inks
  • Goldfaber Coloured Pencils
  • Goldfaber Aqua Watercolour Pencils
  • Oil Colours (Creative Studio)
  • Broadpen
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink

All Faber-Castell coloured pencil ranges are vegan-friendly.

Find Faber-Castell in the compendium.

Source: Mail contact

 

Trying out Oozeq

In my last post, I introduced you to Oozeq, a vegan plasticine, and Oozeq’s inventor sent me some to try out.

You can buy it on Etsy (box with three packs, each 10 g) or Ebay (single packs, 10g).

Reading up on this never dry putty, you’ll find out it is kind of the swiss army knife of doughs.  So in case any A-Team, MacGyvers or Megan Gyvers out there need plasticine, that can be used as  fondant, molds, battery,  polymer clay armatures and more, besides the two obvious ways you can use it, slime or play dough, this could be for you.

I started more traditional and kneaded it around for a minute or so (consider its long journey) to make it all smooth. Although I automatically formed a lollipop swirl and a rose in the beginning, the first documented creation with Oozeq was this ear.

I did notice though, that longer fingernails are definitely not very helpful in moulding out smaller details. At times I felt a bit edward-scissor-handsy, and my creations bear the marks. Trying to smooth out a scratch, I would leave behind another. My poor witch can sing a song of all the scars I gave her. I also used a bit of water to smooth things out (on the witch), which helped but also made the surface a bit sticky.

After the Oozeq ear, I added sand in a 1:2 ratio (10g Oozeq, 20g sand).

Goodbye ear, hello sandy dough. And it really swallows all the sand,  glitter, or whatever you’ll mix with it and binds it. No sand or glitter on the loose. Next you can see the thaler I imprinted with a sealing stamp. All the fine details are visible and nothing stuck to the stamp.

After stamping, I wanted to see, how the sandy Oozeq molded, so I produced this little seal, which I don’t dare to destroy. It went through quite an evolution, if you think about it: From a droplet of putty to a swirl, a rose, an ear, a thaler and finally a seal puppers with beady eyes.

I did also find out that the sand muddied up the dye of the dough. However, this could be because I used the beige-grey playground sand I’ve got to mix in the soil for succulents.

Although I had my eyes set on vegan food dye ( Biovegan) to use on the plasticine, I couldn’t get it and made do with what I had at home. It might though be not what the inventor had in mind with his product. Oozeq is a non-toxic, even edible, plasticine, but I went ahead and dyed it with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist brush pens (see rose above), Daler-Rowney FW acrylic ink and Deltamarker. The colours came out vibrant and the chisel nib of the alcohol markers worked best. Only the black acrylic ink left some light black hued residue behind after rubbing it with gusto on the back of my hand (easily washed off). It suprised me that my hands were not dyed at all, the dough absorbed the colours – no stains, clean hands. I tried shimmery green acrylic ink and the putty kept the shimmer.

Before making my big showstopper (Bake-Off reference here, hehe), I tried Oozeq’s nail varnish hack as seen on Instagram .

Using it to mask what you don’t want to cover in nail varnish does work. It mustn’t protrude too much, so you still can reach in all the corners with your utensils. I went for an ombre look with a cut up cellulose sponge. It would have looked better, if I used a smoother sponge, but it still worked. Afterwards you  can just fold the putty piece, you used, up again and knead it. The plasticine absorbs the nail lacquer and you can keep on using it over and over again.

I also tried Oozeq as kneadable, removable glue dots (wasn’t advertised as such, just felt adventurous). You shouldn’t use it on walls or wallpapers (it contains oil) but I did stick the ear, the thaler, the piece of origami paper Oozeq is wrapped in, and on top of the paper the blue snake, to a lacquered door and door frame. They all stayed put. I did remove the ear and the thaler after a couple of minutes, but for a glorious short amount of time “the walls had ears”, well one ear; and it was a door.  The paper stayed on the door for over a day. Then I peeled of the putty. On the paper and the door were ,what you can describe as grease stains (that’s why you shouldn’t use it on wallpaper or painted walls). They came off the door with a sheet of kitchen roll wetted with a water-washing-up liquid combo (in no time).

Finally I come to my “pièce the résistance. Since it being already September and Halloween lurking round the corner (and the worst witch reruns  on  telly), I really wanted to make a little witch.

I was able to roll out the finest lines and make the smallest dots (see above) for the highlights and the whites of the eyes. Another mistake I made was mudding up the lashes. Initially I only applied a cat-eye liner in brown. I wasn’t too happy with it (should have chosen black). So I decided to add lashes, also in brown. With the same coloured hair it lacked of contrast. And the poor lashes (2D) got blurred in all the kerfuffle, as did the irides ( well, someone looked up the plural of iris) and the highlights. The pupils ,unfortunately, overtook the space of the irides, there is only a faint blue reminder on the very edge.

I used  eight Oozeq drops (80g, each 10g) for the witch. From leftover morsels I formed the wee pumpkin, a little black tortoiseshell kitten and the flowery hat band.

The witch dons some lovely striped stockings, boots/clogs, a striped top with cat head application and petal shaped sleeves and a crooked hat with a little flower garland. As for hair I chose the Mildred Hubble hairstyle : plaited pigtails.

The conclusion:

  • Oozeq doesn’t really smell like anything, only if you really sniff it hard, you can smell a typical hint of play dough as you know it.
  • It does leave an ever so slight film on your hands, when you knead it (which washes away with soap and water).
  • The putty is a bit prone to scratches  (my dye mixtures might have aggravated the situation) molding more ornate, intricate things.
  • Thinner naturally white coloured layers can become see-through
  • The plasticine has a bit of a shine to it like a built-in highlighter (make-up reference)
  • If you accidentally drop a whole witch’s leg on the carpet, you’ll retrieve a hairy one (not that the witch would complain)
  • Oozeq is a swiss army knife putty
  • For the ear and the seal I used one pack of Oozeq plus 20g of sand ( ear and seal are one and the same)
  • The cost of a pack of Oozeq  at the moment is a bit steep,  if you are looking for making things like my witch (she, kitten and pumpkin swallowed eight packs),  for figures or claymation; basically if you need loads of dough. Of course it has all the other application possibilities and the price might well be rightfully so, but for how I used it, needing a quantity of product, it is not very economical.
  • Is it usable for claymation? I can’t tell you. You’ll probably have to make smaller figurines. The body of my witch (upper body-legs ratio) does not allow her to stand up. Maybe a wire skeleton would help the weight distribution. To be fair, I have to say, I don’t know anything about claymation making.

Finally, I want to thank Oozeq’s inventor Bill Zicker , for reaching out and sending me the plasticine. I am glad there is finally a vegan-friendly plasticine product out there, that I could list. I am also glad, I was given the opportunity to try it out.

 

In case you are very understandably wondering how the little witch is doing:

After 1 1/2 days I discovered the poor thing had lost her head and one pigtail plait. This might be partly due to the lack of not having a (wire) spine and because I wouldn’t smush her precious head harder on her neck.

The final part is not for the faint-hearted, because …

… I had to spike her head on a toothpick to bond it to her body. Since I haven’t shortened the toothpick, the witch still remains in the same state as seen above. But think about it, if you coloured the toothpick green and propped the witch in front of a green screen, she would have a levitating head. The whole situation would be a mishap caused by a spell gone wrong. Other than having a toothpick in her head, she really is doing fine –  kitten and pumpkin weren’t harmed at all.

 

 

Source: Mail contact; Oozeq’s website

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oozeq – vegan non-drying plasticine

Oobleq is a cruelty-free company producing Oozeq a vegan non-drying plasticine (never dry putty). It consists of only five non-toxic, 100% plant based, edible ingredients. It  cleans up with water and you can use Oozeq as a base for your DIY projects, e.g. adding colouring, hand cream, shea butter – you can make “your own stress relief slime, squishy hand lotions and slime soaps” (see Oozeq Description on Etsy)

For more information about Oozeq visit the company’s website.

 

Source: mail contact

 

Ecco Pigment – Faber-Castell

I recently stumbled upon Faber-Castell’s Ecco Pigment Pens. My favourite is 0.05 . Just like the Pitt Artist Pens, they are waterproof and have maximum lightfastness.

It is incredible how small you can draw with the 0.05 – that is why I like the pen so much.  In the following pics I have added some coins for size comparison. (coins: 2 Czech Koruna, 20 pence, one dime & one cent)