VeganArtStuff

Today I inquired about brush tip marker and (brush tip) alcohol marker. I have written to following brands:

-Too, Copic Marker and Paper

-Chameleon Marker

-ShinHanart, Touch Twin Marker

-Dick Blick Art Materials, Blick Marker

-Spectrum Noir, maybe they answer this time

-Winsor & Newton; Pro Marker, Brush Marker, Pigment Marker and Marker Paper – because their information sheet they always send out for this kind of inquiries is probably outdated and existed already before the acquisition of the  Letraset Marker range

– Sakura Color Product Corp. through Royal Talens, I inquired about the Koi and Pigma Range, especially about the the Koi Brush Pens, Pigma Brush and Pigma Calligrapher – I hope I get a response this time (contact form on official jp website does not work)

-Deleter, Neopiko Marker – I hope something goes through to them, the mail adress on their main website still does not work after all those months.

-Tombow Europe, I inquired about the ABT Dual Brush and the Mono Drawing range as well as the Blending Kit

I hope I get some answers soon!

Here are the two vegan friendly alcohol marker ranges I already mentioned:

-Delta Marker by Rotbart  https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/03/07/delta-marker/

-ZIG Kurecolor by Kuretake  https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/06/17/vegan-friendly-products-kuretake/

Source: Mail contact

Last week I wrote again to Viarco (Art Graf), Daniel Smith, Sennelier, Kuretake and also again to Weber Art (Mijello). So far I got one reply from Viarco that  my further inquiry will get passed on and Kuretake wrote back about a couple of products, but I inquired further information about not only the actual and end product being vegan and cruelty free but whether the cruelty free part applies to the company and not just to several products. I did send my definition of a product being vegan but I also don’t know whether they only mean the actual product or the whole manufacturing process as well. Whenever I think it is just a matter of small formalities and a couple of days to get the right information to pass on to you and I am one step away from the finish line of the whole process, a gust of wind comes in and I land where I started.  Months ago it seemed as though I could give you the facts for Art Graf and Kuretake in an instant, and then I did not hear back till I wrote again last week. The many other companies which decided to not even bother to reply that they are not interested in art supplies free of animal derivatives and cruelty, they just could have answered “no interest at the moment” which I mention in my inquiries as an option. And for the companies not to answer, although I mentioned specific products that I own, and wanted the information for them, that is not just rude, but also bad/ nonexistent customer service. Since I sent out all my inquiries to all the different companies, it has already been over three months, so I don’t think there will be any other replies from all of those.

I know the process of getting product information has slowed down so much, but I hope I will still get some bits of information from time to time.

Here is my list again from end of April 2017, nothing has changed much but Canson moved from the “did not reply” category to not being vegan friendly or cruelty free.

https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/04/28/big-overview-so-far-end-of-april/ 

https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/05/22/company-update-canson/

Source: Mail Contact

Today I wrote again to Daniel Smith, Kuretake, Viarco and  Sennelier.   I did not stop looking out for our vegan friendly products, but I waited and hoped to have heard back by now from several companies.

Since there are a lot of different brands and companies around the globe, I am also happy if you want to let me know about a brand or company that I did not mention or thought of before here(https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/04/28/big-overview-so-far-end-of-april/) and I will write to them. I also looked through Etsy last month and wrote down a couple of Etsy shops selling their own inks and also brand names from different countries, e.g. Lithuania. I am still a bit hesitant because I don’t want to release “vegan hell” on single indivuals making art supplies in small amounts.

I hope there will be new company updates soon,

Ansho

Schjerning (paints): they are not interested at the vegan art sector at the moment.

Elmer’s: According to Newell’s customer service, they don’t use any animal or plant derivatives in their glues, adhesives and containers and they don’t test on animals. This was the answer to my second mail, in which I inquired about animal derivatives in the manufacturing process and animal testing carried out by themselves, their parent or sister companies and partners and that they do not commission other third parties to do so. I will leave it at that. So I want you to be your own judge about this.

When I elaborated my vegan friendly criteria, I also tweaked my standard inquiry form (I learnt it the hard way. I finally  made two standard inquiry forms that I only need to adapt for the individual company, after I wrote out the first twenty or thirty letters each single time (I hope it weren’t more, lesson learnt) and working my way through all their products and listing them in the inquiry. In the case of big distributors such as Gerstaecker and Boesner, it took me a while to sort out all their own brand products and I got unfortunately no reply.                              I also included  in my letter, the companies should be so kind to explicitly mention they being cruelty-free according to my criteria (The manufacturer does not test on animals or commissions other parties to do so, none of their parent and sister companies or any other partners test on animals or commission animal testing, none of their raw material suppliers and subsuppliers test on animals or commission animal testing, if there are other options.(According to the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, animal testing has to be avoided if it is possible and has the goal to minimize animal testing for REACH. Lastly, there is no animal testing abroad for the manufacturer’s products to be sold abroad.)).
I adjusted my standard form letters a couple of times, in order to have everything covered and no loopholes left, for the companies and I to be understandable and to save time and effort; but still, companies like to tiptoe around this specific topic – animal testing.                               Although the answer was kind of repetitive and cryptical, I am still thankful that I got an answer from Newell for Elmer’s. I struggled before with those big corporations and already thought, what hassle I am in for writing to big business brands and I probably should not bother the try. I already wrote to Rotring about 2 months ago, and got no reply. And I learnt looking up Rotring, that it belongs to Newell Brands. They own a lot of brands, such as Prismacolor and Sharpie (I went a couple of times to the websites of those two and even started writing an inquiry, but then, what was the sense of it), Parker (fountain pens), Waterman, Elmers and non crafting/art brands such as e.g. Yankee Candle.                                   It is surprising and sad to see so many brands/manufacturers with up to  a couple of centuries’ old company history to be gulped down by a big  overshadowing human built structure.

During my “research”, if you want to call it so, I stumbled across several companies/ manufacturers that do belong to big companies, what I did not know before. With a lot of art supplies’ brands it is just like it is with the majority of fashion brands. And not all big companies are associated with negative stuff like animal testing, but big companies, which also own brands producing laundry detergent, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and chemical product manufacturing are, because concerning pharmaceuticals, there probably will be animal testing.                                                           There are big companies, which  might just have brands of a certain type, e.g. art supplies, but there are also big companies, which own a wide array of different brands, e.g. Newell Brands , Baiersdorf (Tesa – adhesives/glue, Nivea) and Henkel (Pritt glue). Baiersdorf was also mentioned by a company as their raw material supplier, but being part of the EU, REACH applies to them and also the guidelines of ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) to avoid animal testing and reduce animal testing. This is not much, but better than nothing, another but, they can always use those kind of testing results/data from their other branches.                 Overall, you probably know the big baddies out there.

To the companies and brands; Time for some brands’ family trees.

There are: ColArt- which is subsidiary of Lindéngruppen along the line, F.I.L.A. Group and Bolton Group, those are probably not all, but I stumbled upon them.

ColART (ColArt Group, subsidiary of AB Wilh. Becker, and in the end subsidiary of Lindéngruppen, nesting doll principle- a group in a group …): ColArt do not support animal testing (Colart Vegan Friendly Statement 28march2017); some brands of ColArt are: Winsor & Newton, Reeves, Lefranc Bourgeois, Liquitex, Conté à Paris and Arches.

F.I.L.A. Group– story time, little Nerchau was swallowed by Lukas in 2009,  in 2004Lukas developed the Bob Ross oil paints, then, Lukas was swallowed by the Daler Rowney Group which was swallowed by F.I.L.A Group. What a tale of eating and getting eaten, and yet another tale of nesting dolls; a group in a group, … ). Here are some of the F.I.L.A. Group’s brands: Lyra, Daler-Rowney, Canson, Giotto and Lukas.

Bolton Adhesives (Bolton Group) home of Bison, Griffon and Uhu. Uhu is vegan friendly (https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/03/10/glue-products-by-uhu/). I have not yet inquired about the other companies.

Royal Talens (joined the Sikkens Group NV in 1963, in the 1970s  Sikkens was taken over by the AKZO group and Talens  became an AKZO subsidiary as well, until 1991. Since 1991 it belongs to the Sakura Color Products Corporation). Royal Talens’ own brands are: Talens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Amsterdam, ArtCreation, Cobra and Ecoline. Royal Talens is European distributor of Sakura, and distributor of Schjerning, Strathmore and Bruynzeel (belongs to Sakura as well)

And lastly a little friendly fish: Golden Paints purchased Williamsburg Handmade Oil Colors.

Faber-Castell is pretty much its own group, for its own brand. Some other independent  companies/manufacturers are Lascaux (paints from Switerland), Finetec (as in Finetec Pearcolors) and Hahnemühle (Paper), which kind of did a reverse thing; it once merged with  Schleicher & Schuell all the way back in 1902, in 1927 the latter owned Hahnemühle till it demerged in 2004, and was released back into the wild, being independent ever since.

Source: Mail contact, websites

http://www.newellbrands.com/Pages/Index.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newell_Brands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beiersdorf

http://www.beiersdorf.com/brands/overview

http://www.henkel.com/brands-and-businesses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henkel

http://www.boltongroup.net/en-ww/brands/brands

http://www.boltonadhesives.com/en/

http://www.filagroup.it/en/around-the-world/#filabrand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.I.L.A._(company)

http://www.lukas.eu/614/

http://www.colart.com/our-brands.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColArt

Colart Vegan Friendly Statement 28march2017

Colart Vegan Friendly Statement March 2017

http://lindengruppen.com/our-businesses/

http://www.goldenpaints.com/press_releases/2010/golden-completes-purchase-of-williamsburg-handmade-oil-colors

http://www.faber-castell.com/company/history

http://www.finetec-mica.de

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hahnemühle

https://www.hahnemuehle.com/en/company/history.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Talens

https://www.royaltalens.com/brands/

https://www.royaltalens.com/about-us/

I just sent out three new inquiries, of which two are second tries, and I hope the companies will respond this time.

–Elmer’s my first try; inquired about their glues, adhesives and paint markers; on their site they state that there are no animal derived ingredients in their glues  http://elmers.com/about/faqs/general.

–Marabu (paints), my second try but this time specified; I inquired about following products: Creabox Creapaste, Creabox Mix & Create WAX, Marabu Basic Acryl acrylic paint, Creabox Professional Acyrlic Paint, Creabox Design Glitter, Creabox Design Marker, Creabox magnetic paint, Creabox Creacolor acrylic paint, Creabox Design Metallic paints, Creabox blackboard paint, Marabu Textile Spray

–Lukas (paints); second try, but specified: Lukas Cryl Studio acrylic paints, Nerchau Patina, Nerchau Pastes: Granit, Graphite, Gold, Fine Sand and Grit; and I inquired about Bob Ross oil colours, since Lukas developed those in 2004 and Bob Ross Inc. did not respond to my direct inquiry over a month ago. http://www.lukas.eu/614/

Again, I hope this time, I will get a response.

A couple of days ago inquired to these three companies:

• C.Kreul about: -Javana and other Fabric Paint supplies, art potch, photo transfer potch, Hobby Line synthetic resin lacquer, Solo Goya varnish, fixative and acrylic paints and markers, chalk paints and gemstone glue; I have been using Javana Fabric paints for over a decade now, and before purchasing following products, I got the information back then, that they were vegan, in the meaning of the products not containing any animal derivatives: Javana Fabric Paints, art potch, photo transfer potch Hobby Line synthetic resin lacquer, glossy and matte.   Except the new series of chalk paint, I own all of the products I inquired about this time, so I hope it makes it easier for the Company to answer this time after they did not respond to my last inquiry over a month ago.                                                                                                                                                   Sidenote: I don’t think I am going to hear back from any of the other companies and distributors I have written to over a month ago. So those you see actually listed here, are the meagre harvest of my efforts. https://www.veganartstuff.info/2017/03/22/brands-companies-update/)
• Schjerning: Paints from Denmark; I inquired about fabric paints and sprays, and vintage acrylic colours
• Deco Art: they replied once back yet and I am waiting for an update. All their paint products don’t contain animal derivatives according to them, and their products are not tested on animals. I wrote back, whether that also includes no animal derivatives during the manufacturing process.