UPDATED! MY STUDIO SUPPLIES LIST - VEGAN STYLE

To keep with my vegan lifestyle, I double-checked that the supplies I use in my projects were in fact vegan. I found that I will need to edit some of the products already residing in my studio. Going forward the list below will guide the buying decisions for my studio supplies. I ran across this website that did the product investigation already, so all I needed to do was to confirm what in my existing stock was vegan and make a purchasing plan for future supplies. I like keeping things simple, so I looked for brands that were consistently vegan in their philosophy and products. That turned out to be more difficult than I originally thought as many brands had exclusions to this or that. By the way, most Ivory Black and Paynes Grey are made from charred cow bones.
UPDATED 6/11/23- Looks like Colors of Nature a Canadian vegan artist supplier is out of business. So I am looking for an alternative now.

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Here is my supply list of preferred brands that are vegan and/or non-toxic. I’ll update this list as new information becomes available. If you know of any sources or perhaps something on this list that isn’t really vegan, comment below. Would love to chat with fellow plant lovers!

Acrylic Paint
-Winsor & Newton Artist and Galeria (Except for Ivory Black and Payne's Gray.)

Watercolor
-Daniel Smith: Essentials Mixing Watercolor Set
-Kuretake Gansai Tambi
-Maimeri Blu [except for 484 Van Dyck Brown, 486 Sepia, 514 Payne’s Grey, and 535 Ivory Black]

Brushes
-Acrylic and oil: Mimik Hog Professional Synthetic Hog Bristle Brushes
-Watercolor: da Vinci Watercolor Series 5386 Casaneo Paint Brush Set, New Wave Synthetics AND Faux Squirrel Artist Watercolor Brushes

Canvas
-Blick Premier Artists' Panels and Gallery Wrapped up to 16 x 16
-(Still looking for a stretched canvas for sizes 18 x 18 - 40 x 40)

Charcoal
-Winsor & Newton Artist Vine Charcoal Sticks

Gesso
-Natural Earth Paint-Eco Gesso Kit [The full kit makes 50 fl. oz. of gesso, which is enough to prime about 10-15 medium-sized canvases]
-Golden GAC Acrylic Polymer Mediums
-Daniel Smith

Masking Fluid
-Talens Royal Liquid Masking Film
-Daniel Smith

Oil Paints
- Natural Earth Refined Walnut Oil
-Natural Earth - The Complete Eco-Friendly Oil Paint Kit
-Colors of Nature - Out of Business

Pastels
-Colors of Nature - Out of Business

Pigments
-Natural Earth
-Colors of Nature - Out of Business

Sizing
-Gamblin PVA Size. [More archival than rabbit glue]

Tape
-IPG White Artist Tape

Watercolor Paper
-Stonehenge Aqua Watercolor Block, 140lb. Coldpress, 10 x 10
-Moulin Du Roy Block 140Lb Hot Press 










Finding a place to be my artist self - part one

No one really tells you how to do this. Or maybe that was just my experience. #Instagram shows lovely studios by working artists and it seems so effortless and magical. So what really happens when you decide to set up your studio?

FIRST YOU NEED TO FIND THE SPACE

It happened for me this way. This past summer, I was at an arts conference and happened to mention to a friend and fellow artist that I would love to find an affordable space to make art. You know some kind of space that could be called an artist studio. I was flexible and wasn’t too picky, or so I thought. We chatted about that and a few other issues and said goodbye. A few days later he messaged me and said he had a friend who was leaving their space and would I like to take a peek at the space. He said “oh yeah, it’s also affordable”. I made the call.

MY STUDIO WISH LIST

I’m a pretty flexible gal, so at first my wish list looked like this:

  • 10x10 space at a minimum

  • Heat and A/C

  • No more than a 10 minute drive from home

  • Easy access to water

  • Safe

As I investigated the options I came to realize a few things.

If 10x10, my goodness, I needed a window with some natural light. I have a sensitive nose, so the space had to pass the nose test. I didn’t care about the walls or the floors, I figured I would be messing them up anyway. Noise. Ok I had not even thought of this let alone have it on my list! So my updated list now looks like this:

  • 10x10 space at a minimum

  • Heat and A/C

  • No more than a 10 minute drive from home

  • Easy access to water

  • Safe

  • Smells healthy

  • Window

  • Low noise (no industrial drills or loud music)

So back to my investigation for the space, I found the gentleman who was renting a few offices had a few choices. One space had a sink and water, but no window. It felt a bit like a jail cell, so this freaked me out a little. The other space didn’t have a sink or water, but was next to the ladies bathroom, and it had a window! The floor was crappy, ok. And they had painted the walls bright white. OK great! The window needed an updated shade, no biggie. I was pretty satisfied that this space would work for me. Then I heard the drumming.

It turns out the guy down the hall practices with his drums. As in rock band drumming. The agent told me he only came to the office during the evening hours, so this shouldn’t be a problem. Mmmmmm.

SEALING THE DEAL

I was ready to make the deal happen. It took several months before I could officially move in. In that time, the office I thought I was getting, ended up being a different one, which was fine since it had 2 large windows that suited me just fine. They installed some manufactured wood floors, very nice, but yikes, now I had to protect them! And they also installed some very nice vertical blinds. In addition, this office was located next to a storage place, so I also got a 10 x 5 unit to store all my extra art supplies that didn’t fit in my studio space. This is how my final wish list looks now:

  • 10x10 space with 10 x 5 storage unit nearby

  • Heat and A/C

  • A 20 minute drive from home

  • Easy access to water in the ladies room

  • Safe, I have to keep my wits about me

  • Smells great in office. The storage unit has an odd smell, but not that bad

  • 2 Windows

  • New flooring

  • New vertical blinds

  • I have a neighbor who plays the drums during the day. Luckily he is good!

  • A business address

I moved in Nov 30, 2018. This was by far the best action I took in 2018 to move me forward in my work. I love having a special space for making art. I created the space so it can be flexible so I often do the business side of my work in the studio too. So far this little space works for me.

In part two of The Making of a Studio I’ll talk about how I actually set up the space.