I was in a beautiful home decor store last week and got to talking about art supplies and art, with the storeowner and she hopes to learn art from me when I return from our tour, late this year.

 In the meanwhile, she wanted some of my art supplies. My art supply stock has been in storage, since we relocated and I had to hunt up the Symbol LS2208 bar code scanner so I could even work out what I had paid, for them, to get a costing.  This was partly why I had not tried to sell them until now.

I made a lovely trade, soft furnishings for the caravan or my summer studio retreat, for these art supplies.

I am thinking of going down to her store next week and asking if she would like to trade more supplies, to sell in her store for a gorgeous standard lamp I saw that would look fabulous between Reg and my armchairs.

I am thinking that with these trades, and the $1,000. Art Supply Giveaway.ThatTina from Mummified, Times, Five, blog, and I have organized together, I will not need to do a market this Sunday to sell off some of my excess art supplies stocks and I can concentrate on the preparations for our tour.

The post is illustrated, by the fridge magnet art, available from my fridgemagnetart.com web site; see side bar, or from our caravan awning studio, while we are on tour.

 
 
 
The Giveaway:

In conjunction with Mummified Times Five, I am giving away up to $1000 worth of Maimeri Classico oil paints!

Each prize pack includes 10 tubes of Maimeri Classico paints valued at $9.55 each…so with free postage, that’s a prize pack valued at over $100!! And we have 10 packs to give away!!

To enter, all you need to do is:

-comment on any post ON EACH of Kathy Shell’s blogs (listed in my blog side bar and below):

http://www.artslim.org/
http://www.cards-art.com/
http://www.kathy-shell.net/
http://www.doggiesblog.com/
http://www.gray-nomad.com/
http://www.bloggermuse.com/
http://www.functional-art.net/
http://www.postcards-art.com/
http://www.campfire-yarns.com/
http://www.fridgemagnetart.com/
- then go to the competition post at

http://mummifiedtimesfive.net/2010/02/01/spotlight-on-kathy-shell-giveaway/

and say why you would like to win a 10 pack of Maimeri Classico paints.

(Both steps are mandatory to be in the running to win this prize)

Giveaway finishes 15 Feb 2010

 This blog post has been illustrated by postcards from the art of Kathy Shell. These can be orderd through the artist's postcards-art web site or purchased 'direct from the artist', in her caravan awning studio
 
 
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Advance Notice.

$1,000 . value of Oil Paint to be given away FREE to my blog readers during

February 2010.

Not just any oil paint but,

 quality Italian Maimeri Classico 60ml tubes.

These paints are the artist’s daily bread and butter. Anyone – professional or amateur – who picks up a tube of Classico oil paints will find in it just what they need. They contain no waxes or thickeners, and pigment concentration is very high. Bright, lively colours with overall harmony in the palette, these paints from Italy are made with non-toxic, non-polluting pigments that improve light-fastness.

They are versatile paints, offering exceptional value for money, but you could own a set plus postage FREE.  Watch this blog and http://mummifiedtimesfive.net for further details and be the first to enter this FREE competition.

The set of Four fridge magnets that I have illustrated this blog post with can be ordered through my contact page. Free postage or shipping and secure Paypal payment. Please include the blog post name and date in the instructions to the seller with your payment so I know which four fridge magnets to send to you.

You may also purchase these fridge magnets 'direct from the artist', in my studio space in my caravan awning if you catch up with me while on our caravan tour.
 
 
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It is amazing what you can learn on line these days.  I spend a fair amount of time each day referencing things that interest me on the internet, even chat forums give me leads on things that interest me and I refer to reading those forums I enjoy as ‘reading my morning paper’. This then leads on into a series of news items that interest me. With the range of interests I have because of having had, a varied creative and health related career, lots of travel and being in my senior, years.  I am never struggling for a topic to blog about. 

I have ghost written articles for a Doctor that have been published in Medical Publications and I am thinking that something along the lines of medical assistant training school would be a useful course if I kept up medical research writing.

Right now I am amazed at the amount of education you can do on line, last year I did a bone health program, I am currently doing better blogging training and another on fitness. I love that I can do these courses in my own time, file the lessons away when I have lots of writing or art I want to do a and focus on them when I fell like doing some study.

My art and my art fridge magnet sales is my relaxing creative work I love to mix in with my writing.

I can tell this is going to be a busy year for me. I love my time spent writing, creating art, touring, studies and exercise. Sometimes I have a little difficulty trying to explain that with all my personal interests and carer and home duties, I don’t have a lot of spare  time on my hands for visiting and visitors, just the same I hope to meet  lots of friends,  on our tour, and share a cuppa in the caravan annex.   I hope I meet youJ.

The fridge magnets from my art, I show here will be available to purchase from me while we are on tour. They can also be ordered through the contact page of this web site. Be sure to add the date and the post title to your paypal instructions to the seller so I know which set of four magnets you would like. Free postage or shipping on orders of four.
 
 
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Pastels are one of the easiest art mediums to work with but because of the binding of pigment into talc and binders they are amongst the most toxic of art materials and they are not something I would recommend for use in a clean healthy home environment. In 2000, a leading manufacturer of children’s oil crayons and artist’s pastels, were found to have asbestos in many of the products. This was confirmed by independent studies.

A family home is a place where our children create and learn. It is vital that we keep this place safe for kids. Some play items contain hazardous materials. In particular, art supplies can pose a threat to your child's health.  

Existing government regulations can only protect from known dangers. Many products sneak in from countries where the words ‘non toxic’ on the label has very little significance within the country of manufacture. Companies often base their companies in India and China where mal practice lawsuits bring pathetically low compensation payout for poisoning.

A mesothelioma lawyer would have a good result in a genuine compensation claim against companies based in the US, Europe or Australia and this is a guide to me, to only believe the words ‘Non Toxic’, on a label, if it is manufactured and owned by a company based in a country where human life has a high financial value.  Where it is in a manufacturer’s financial interest to use cheap though dangerous products to manufacture goods, there will always be a risk that they will do this.

Talc is sometimes contaminated with asbestos.. In 2000, tests in a certified asbestos-testing laboratory found the tremolite form of amphibole asbestos in three out of eight major brands of children's crayons (oil pastels) that are made partly from talc.
Overall, 32 different types of crayons from these brands contained more than trace amounts of asbestos, and eight others contained trace amounts

Tests by the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration found asbestos in all four talc samples that it tested in 2000