Vanessa Gillings

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

thank you 💛

I think it's the h. pylori infection I had last year -- it wrecked me and apparently causes new allergies in a lot of people (as well other health problems I'm having, plus the allergy started at the same time). But I do think inflammation + constant exposure is why I'm allergic to THIS

thank you 💛 I'm trying to stay optimistic about it, to try to see this as an excuse to try some new things...I guess we'll see how it goes!

relatable! I'm considering options to maybe work digitally more, but it's a bit overwhelming to think about switching up my whole process (and I'm midway through projects so having to finish what I started is necessary, too). I had corgis so at least they were too short to get into my art!

it does 😞 thank you!

thank you!

Not yet. I'm taking a few days away from all my supplies to try to let my inflammation die down because contact dermatitis is delayed, it'll be hard to know if the gloves are working if my hands are already super pissed off, but when I try it I'll definitely post about whether it works!

Thanks 🫂

Arches has confirmed it's in their paper.

And as a note, it's apparently in pretty much ALL paper, including paper books, fun.

😂

💛💛💛

haha yesssss that is the problem! I'm considering buying a larger size to try fitting some cotton gloves underneath to help with that...I feel like I'm going to have to re-train myself how to draw/paint with them on though. My friend referred to them as "annoying hand socks" and she's right! 😂

oh no, I'm so sorry for your friend! Mold allergies sound like the absolute WORST because molds are everywhere. I really hope that I can just use gloves to fix my skin because I realllllyy don't want to give up traditional art 🥲

Yep! Thankfully I actually already have some latex free powder free nitrile ones I use for cleaning to try out!

That’s good to hear! I’m hoping that using gloves will be enough to make the contact dermatitis go away. I only have MI in two other places atm — hand dish soap which I don’t use daily and laundry soap, but weirdly my clothes don’t seem to be an issue? So it feels like work is my source

thank you! I was thinking about using weights, good to know that works!

Sorry to hear you've got itchy hands, too! I was told it was eczema, but it was actually contact dermititis so I'd talk to an allergist about maybe getting a patch test done. My reaction lasts for weeks, but when I went to Scotland for two weeks last summer it went away after about 4 days

gotcha! I'll look into that, thanks!

I honestly never thought that much about preservatives in paints either! I knew they used them for shelf-stability etc but I didn't realize that 10% of the population is allergic to them! So it's definitely good to know, especially because apparently it's in most commercial papers and tapes, too!

yeah it took literally a year and a half for anyone to even mention it! "Must be eczema because you have food allergies!" and that was it. So it's good to know. Thankfully this seems to be the only contact allergen that's a problem for me, but it's a pain that it's in everything

thankfully for me I have low allergies to those except for tree/grass-related oils.

thank you so much for chiming in! The thing I'm allergic to is isothiazolinone which is purely a biocide/fungicide used unfortunately...pretty much everywhere it seems, but thankfully I don't have any allergies to honey. Re: essential oils, I'd have to be allergic to the substance itself, and

I'll let you know what works! I haven't researched making paints myself much so I can't speak to what's involved

thanks!

thanks for the resource! I'm definitely interested in potentially checking out some indie makers, or trying to make my own -- having a consistent product is pretty important for the color-matching work I do, but perhaps that's possible with small batches...I think I just need to research it more!

interesting! I hadn't heard this but I'll ask my dr about it