Unwrap Creativity This Christmas – Craft More, Spend Less!
Everybody can do something for the environment, including suppliers of fine art materials. Sustainability means safeguarding the future, being socially responsible and making our eco-footprint as small as possible. Our pursuit of eco-friendly environmental best practices and products in our industry helps us reach our goal of sustainability.
Our building and equipment use only environmentally certified materials and are painted with low VOC paint; we use non-toxic cleaning products and recycle shipping boxes and packing material. We've installed efficient windows and lighting fixtures throughout our facility and programmed our thermostats so that we use less energy.
We know that being environmentally conscious is essential to our customers as well. We’re also committed to offering you art materials that are environmentally friendly because of the way they’re formulated, manufactured or packaged. These products are made with sustainable materials or use renewable energy. These products are listed below by product category for your convenience.
A significant priority is reducing hazardous chemical use, which is a crucial challenge for all paint manufacturers. When added to artists ' paint, cadmium is a heavy metal that creates an intrinsic quality many artists value and is currently hard to replicate artificially.
We carry alternatives like cadmium-free colours from our valued professional ranges (ex, Liquitex or hue colours), thus reducing the heavy metals that could potentially be released into the environment. But at the same time, we recognize cadmium's role in our professional ranges. Thus, Liquitex and other brands have developed Cadmium FREE hues.
M. Graham artist's oil colour is made with pure walnut oil and is solvent-free, with no fillers or additives, and the walnut oil does not turn yellow with time. Cleans easily with environmentally friendly brush cleaner.
The Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour does not use traditional solvents, so you can clean up and wash brushes with brush, soap and water; it is an excellent eco-friendly choice if you paint with oil colour.
Likewise, Artisan Varnish Remover safely removes Artisan varnishes from paintings for cleaning and re-varnishing.
Sennelier Green for Oil Solvent is a Non-toxic, plant-based, eco-friendly solvent. Green For Oil is part of the "biosolvents" family, a safer and greener alternative to traditional solvents. The raw materials come from oleaginous plants, such as rapeseed, sunflower, soybean, and flax. Their main functions remain identical to those of conventional solvents. No deterioration of the final product!
Gamblin Solvent-Free Mediums and Gel increase flow and transparency, have a moderately fast drying rate and increase gloss. Made from safflower oil and alkyd resin, Solvent-Free Gel is non-toxic and contains no petroleum distillates. The solvent-free gel should be used in moderation with oil colours – no more than 25% by volume. Gamblin's mission is to lead oil painting into the future. This means crafting materials as they should be, not just as they have been. Their contemporary mediums are accurate to historic working properties, yet safer and more permanent.
Stone paper is a combination of Calcium Carbonate (>75%) with a small quantity (<25%) of non-toxic resin (PE – Polyethylene) to create an eco-friendly, robust, and sustainable substrate. Together, these materials create a substrate that is both water and tear-resistant!
Switching to renewable energy or “green power,” an alternative energy source, significantly reduces energy-related GHG emissions and is a highly renewable resource that is readily abundant and reliable; it is inherently one of the cleanest sources of power available; it does not contribute to global warming, nor does it produce any form of harmful waste. In addition, wind power conserves natural resources, using less than 5 percent of the land on which it is sited, minimizing habitat destruction and preserving open spaces. Therefore, it is an effective business strategy for combating climate change.
Strathmore pioneered the industry’s first line of recycled artist papers, and recently, the company introduced the first line of artist papers manufactured with 100% certified renewable energy. Strathmore’s Wind Power Series includes drawing, watercolour, and sketch pads. High-quality artist papers made with 100 percent wind power, the Wind Power Series produces a pollution-free, renewable energy resource. All art supplies in this series are manufactured with emissions-free, wind-generated electricity through 100 percent renewable energy credits, certified through the Green-e Marketplace Program administered by the CRS.
Recycled artist papers like cotton, linen, and hemp are another environmental alternative fibre. They use natural green alternatives such as Awagami paper collection and "tree-friendly" fibres, such as bamboo, hemp, rice, linen, Awagami paper collection, and "tree-friendly" fibres such as bamboo hemp, etc., rice, linen and cotton. We carry a variety of archival art paper supplies made from recycled materials and alternative fibres that are considered environmentally friendly—capitalizing on the use of recycled fibres to include high levels of post-consumer waste fibres. By using recycled materials in the paper-making process, the companies are helping to divert waste from landfills, consume less energy, and use less water than virgin fibres (from new trees).
Cotton based papers are made from cotton rags and recovered by-products of plants that have already been grown for use in the textile industry. In addition, both cotton and hemp grow faster than trees, and harvesting them does not disturb natural ecosystems. One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fibre as four acres of trees. Hemp can also be pulped using fewer chemicals than wood because of its low lignin content, and its natural brightness eliminates the need for chlorine bleaching. Another advantage is that paper made from hemp can be recycled several more times than wood-based paper. Nature enthusiasts and environmentally conscious artists have devoted themselves to bamboo-fibre paper users, ranging from watercolour, acrylic, pastel, and techniques. Bamboo is a multi-year reed that produces more oxygen than a broadleaf tree.
Apaper-sizing substitute products are vegan-sizing, which are plant-based and synthetic. Another alternative sizing is created with an animal by-product made from leftover materials after food processing. Thus, no animals are killed to create sizing like in watercolour papers (Ex, 500 Series Gemini Watercolour).
In the coming months, we’ll also be incorporating the green theme, "earth-friendly," by adding a green leaf symbol green icon to our green products to make them easy to identify throughout our site in our catalogues and store displays. In the meantime, you have our promise that we’ll continue to source even more green products and offer them to you at the best prices — online, in our catalogues, and in our stores.
If you know other quality eco-friendly art supplies, please get in touch with us at [email protected].