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BANG FOR THE BITE
Natural art supplies generally cost more, but buying nontoxic for your kid means they can go Van Gogh without going crazy from chems.
COCKTAIL FACT
The 9-year-old prodigy Marla Olmstead has had several gallery showings across the country; her paintings sell for as much as $25,000 apiece.
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home › tip library › Art Supplies
Is your kid the next Picasso?
The Bite
Pablo-bly not, but you can still encourage your budding artiste to make masterpieces with nontoxic supplies like veggie-based paint...for art that screams like Munch but smells like Monet's garden.The Benefits
- Less suffering for art. Many standard art supplies emit asthma-inducing chems; pick ones that don't contain ammonia, formaldehyde, or turpentine, especially since supplies can end up in kids' mouths.
- Painting a greener planet. Up to 36 billion pounds of toxic acrylic polymer solvents, found in many traditional art supplies, are produced each year.
- Inspiring mini-Mirós. Whether or not your kid's a natural, natural art supplies will get their creative juices flowing.
Personally Speaking
It's too early to tell whether Heather's nephew Quinn will be the next Paul Klee, but she picked up a box of the Nuno veggie-based paint for him just in case.Wanna Try?
- Nuno Finger Paint - four colors of food-grade finger paint; for ages three and up ($25).
- Stockmar Modeling Beeswax - great alternative to polymer clay, which contains PVC; six colors, for ages four and up ($15).
- Paint A Poster Books - veggie-pigment paint-by-numbers series with dinosaurs, fairies, and sprites; for ages six and up ($5).
- Prang Soybean Crayons - four-color box of soy (rather than petroleum) wax crayons; for ages four and up ($1).
- EcoArt Works - eco art supplies for both kids and adults (prices vary).
- Children's Health Environmental Coalition - explains how to read the tricky labels on the backs of art supplies containers.
Aug 26,2008
Sponsor
Whenever anyone mentions childhood art, I immediately think of paste. Big tasty tubs full of it. I don't claim to have a particularly refined palate even today, but I was definitely one of the many who licked up gobs and gobs of that stuff growing up.
Is there anyone out there who doesn't cop to eating paste as a kid? And what exactly made it such a common snack for tots? I mean, I never tried to eat Play-Doh. Wait, yes I did. Well, I never tried to eat real clay. OK, I did that too, actually, but it was on a dare, so it doesn't count. Ditto watercolors out of those little trays and one burnt sienna crayon.
But I have never eaten...um...uh...hot glue. Yes, never hot glue. That is a guarantee.
-SF Editor Mike...off to learn how to keep my mouth shut...
Biter Comments...
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Kerry | August 26, 2008 at 08:27 AM