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I beseech the publishing gods, there needs to be a sequeeellll!!

aw thank you 💛

thank you!

thank you so much! It's been hard for sure, but I'm grateful to have found something that seems to be working!

thank you so much!

aw thank you so much! 💛 It's definitely a challenge learning to draw with gloves on but I'm determined to make it work and it is getting easier day by day

thank you so much!!

thank you so much!

thank you! 💛💛💛

photograph of an in progress watercolor and gouache painting of a bunch of mice in a parade holding foods

photograph of an in progress watercolor and gouache painting of a bunch of mice in a parade holding foods, but farther along

I'm painting again! 🎉

So far it seems that wearing cotton gloves under nitrile plus long sleeves is working to curb my allergy, hooray! For now I'm painting a bunch of silly little things to retrain my hand to work while wearing gloves, but I'm getting better each day and I'm feeling hopeful! 💛

agreed 😞 but that's part of why I'm sharing all this publicly, because if I find a solution I hope other artists with the same allergy can maybe benefit! It's a super common allergy -- perhaps 10% of people have it! -- so I really wish manufacturers would stop using it 😡

thank you, me too!

Def someday about making my own, but I need a quicker solution now for paid work. The cotton gloves are washable and nitrile disposable (I also am careful in how I remove them and touch nothing else while wearing them). I have a lot of other allergies so I'm pretty used to avoidance thankfully!

I'm so sorry. I'm trying really hard to find a solution to still paint because I love it, but it's hard. Knowing I can use (one kind of) paper still has made me consider trying to do something more with pencil/ink but we'll see. I'm also...not good at digital 😂 I don't really enjoy it, sadly

Yes, unfortunately -- it was in my laundry soap and dish soap, but also sadly is in pretty much all paper products (except for one notebook so far!), paper books, tapes, and yes, paints 😞 I got a rude and unhelpful reply from Daniel Smith, but all other major WC + gouache brands confirm they use it

I've also been painting with cotton gloves layered under nitrile w/ long sleeves and it SEEMS to work! Dust also aggravates my hands and I sat on the floor for a week while family was visiting so it's hard to say 100% but I'm hopeful. I'm going to paint again today to see how it goes 🤞🤞

Finally some GOOD NEWS -- after some very thorough conversations, Midori's MD notebooks DO NOT contain MI/MCI in their paper, inks or binding glue, hooray!

www.jetpens.com/search?q=mid...

These are the books I use for thumbnailing everything so THANK GOODNESS! Finally a win!

it's only banned in cosmetics unfortunately -- winsor and newton, my primary paint brand, is British and they confirmed for me that they use the preservative

As he pointed out, people handle actually dangerous stuff like toxic chemicals and biohazards professionally all the time, so there IS a way to touch an allergen safely -- it might just not be a solution I can do where I live right now. But I'll solve this problem eventually, I'm determined 😤

I might also explore digital, but giving up traditional completely honestly just breaks my heart. But the more my husband and I talk it over, we feel like there is likely a way I can still touch my painting supplies.

thanks for all the allergy advice, friends!

For now, I'm going to try cotton gloves layered under powderless nitrile + long sleeves (and maybe a carbon filter mask if needed) and if that doesn't work, I might investigate homemade/small-scale gouache and paper. I'll let you know what works!

Or go digital, yep. *maybe* wearing gloves will allow me to still use my tools, but to not be able to even sketch in my sketchbook without them is kind of...demoralizing. 🫠

Heard back from Strathmore, they confirm it's in all of their papers, too.

yeah it's been a real pain, ngl, I've had it for 1 1/2 years non-stop (except on a two-week vacation, which was the first clue that it was an allergy and not just eczema). Weirdly it seems to be related to some stomach pain I'm having, and my allergist agrees so I really need to avoid it, sigh

thank you!

🫂 sorry to hear it, health problems are the absolute worst -- I hope both of us get some relief soon

ugh nooo that sounds awful! And thank you, me too!

thank you! I own power-free, sized nitrile gloves and bought some larger ones so I can wear cotton ones underneath. I'm giving it a bit to let the inflammation die down and then I'll see how the gloves work. I already have food allergies so at least I'm used to cross-contamination issues