HEALTH & SAFETY

All art materials offered under the London Pigment name are for painting, drawing and writing use only. They are used at your own risk. Please do not use these materials on the skin or ingest them.

Using Pigments

It is very important to protect oneself when using fine powders. Prolonged repeated exposure, without using safety precautions can lead to serious health problems. Everytime you use dry pigments please protect yourself and those around you by following a few simple guidelines:

• We recommend using gloves to protect the hands as well, although earth colours are known to be of low toxicity, contact with fine powders can produce skin irritation and reactions such as dermatitis.                                  
• Any amount of fine particulate breathed in is detrimental to the lungs and the use of a high quality dust mask with valves or a respirator is highly encouraged.
• To avoid breathing in dry powders, wet your pigments with water (if using water-based binders) or solvents (if using oil-based binders). Be careful to keep these dispersions in airtight containers as they will evaporate.              
• Copper based pigments such as verdigris (copper acetate) and Synthetic Malachite (copper carbonate) in high levels can be toxic to aquatic life and should be handled extra carefully. 

Using Inks

All of our inks are made from botanical sources apart from carbon black ink (made from burnt wood) and copper ink which is derived from a metal and weak acid mix.

Some of the inks are slightly acidic so please do take care to wash nibs, dip pens, quills or brushes with soap and water after use.