Our ingredients

Did you ever wonder what creative materials such as paint and modelling clay consist of? What causes paint to become thicker, spread more easily and have a fantastic colour? And what makes air-based curing modelling clay so different from modelling clay types that remain soft?

Below, you can read more about the main ingredients and why we choose these ingredients to come to a beautiful high-quality end product.

POSTER PAINT

Poster paint is a simple water-based paint that was developed especially for learning while playing.

The main ingredient of this paint is water. In order to thicken that basis and have it attach to, for instance, paper, we use a starch binder. This binder also ensures a fine structure and spreadability. We make the paint less transparent and give it a little body, using a filler: chalk. This is a very soft type of stone that is ground into fine powder and is mined in Europe. With these main ingredients the gouache paint consists of 98% natural materials. Due to this compound, the gouache paint is not waterproof. After drying, you can add water, to make the dried paint fluid again.

The greatest thing about gouache paint is of course the colour. For some colours we use natural pigments, such as iron oxides (brown-red) or ultramarine (blue). These are fairly neutral tints, but children like to pain using bright colours. The pigments to create these colours cannot be found in nature. That is why we use synthetic pigments for this.

In order to prevent that unwanted micro-organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, can grow inside in the paint and to keep the paint safe, we opt for a responsible, safe preservative and limit the amount to what is strictly necessary.

As we highly value safety, we keep the recipe as simple as possible. We, for instance, do not add any solvents. This makes the pain smell very neutral, so aromatics are not needed.

Due to the composition of our poster paint, it is not necessary to wipe your brushes with paper towels after use before cleaning them under the tap.

ACRYLIC PAINT

Acrylic paint is also a water-based paint that, contrary to gouache paint, is fairly waterproof after drying. That is because in this case we choose a synthetic binder (acrylate), which ensures increased waterproofness. In addition, the binder also determines other important properties of the paint, such as the shine, attachment and elasticity. The higher elasticity ensures that the paint can be applied in nice, thick layers, without cracks emerging after drying.

A certain flow behaviour and viscosity are also important properties of acrylic paint. In order to get the correct structure, we add thickeners. A mix of various fillers adds filling and covering properties to the paint. Finally, just as in gouache paint, a small amount of responsible preservatives is added, to lengthen the shelf life and stability.

For acrylic paint, colours are even more important! These beautiful colours are reached by using carefully selected pigments. Not every pigment is equally covering by itself. So the eventual paint colours also differ in the sense of covering. Also the filling agent may influence the colour. The more filler in a paint, the less bright the colour will be.

In our line of acrylic paints you can also find metallic and pearl colours. Those glittering effects originate from mica pigments, extracted from mines. When selecting a supplier of these pigments, of course we monitor whether mining takes place in a socially responsible and safe way. Mica pigments themselves are less covering. If we still wish to make the paint covering, this will be detrimental to the glittering of the pigments. For that reason, we do not use fillers for these colours.

Due to the acrylic resin in acrylic paint, in liquid form, it falls under microplastics. That is why we advise you to wipe your brushes thoroughly on paper before rinsing them under the tap. The paper with the dried paint residues may be disposed of with the residual waste.

AIR-DRYING MODELLING CLAY

This water-based modelling clay is packed in a vapour-proof packaging, so the water in the modelling clay cannot vaporise. If you keep the modelling clay outside the packaging, this will happen and the modelling clay will become hard after some time. What is left then are a natural binder and different fillers. The types of binders and fillers determine the hardness of the modelling clay. During the drying process, they also ensure that possible shrinkage is compensated, so as to prevent cracks in your clay pieces.

In order to give this type of clay different colours, we make use of natural pigments. In the terra-coloured modelling clay this is, for instance, the mineral pigment iron oxide. In order to make the modelling clay nicely unctuous we also add a little vegetable oil. And as a last step, in case of private label modelling clay, a small dose of responsible preservative is added to prevent fungi formation or bacterial contamination. It would be very unhealthy to get this on your hands when playing with it. Thanks to the innovative compound Creall Do & dry, undesired micro-organisms don’t have a chance to grow, so a preservative is not required.

Because air-hardening clay contains dyes (and sometimes preservatives), it is not biodegradable. Residues of air-hardening clay that are no longer used must therefore be added to the residual waste.

CLAY THAT REMAINS SOFT

For our types of modelling clay that remain soft, we have created two different bases: a wax basis and a polymer basis. The modelling material with a wax basis will always remain soft, because the wax will not vaporise or dry up. Wax itself is oily and transparent. In order to turn it into opaque, non-sticky modelling clay, we add different fillers. One of our modelling clays on a was basis is made with special light-weight fillers. This makes the modelling clay become lighter, literally, allowing young children to shape it even more easily.

The modelling clay on the basis of a polymer (synthetic) has a quite firm basis. That is why we add (harmless) softeners and fillers, so the modelling clay will be mouldable. The special feature about this modelling clay is that when it is heated in a kitchen oven, the plastic particles melt together, turning into a solid and lasting piece of work. If the modelling clay is not baked, it can be used time after time, just as with Ultra and Super soft.

In the modelling materials that remain soft, synthetic pigments ensure a beautiful bright colour. As water is lacking in the recipes of our soft-remaining modelling clay types, fungi and bacteria cannot survive. This means that no preservatives need to be added.

The beautiful dyes used in our soft clay mean that it is not biodegradable. Therefore, the soft clay residues must be added to the residual waste.

QUESTIONS?

We hope to have given you a bit more insight in which ingredients we use to create our products. Do you still have questions, for instance, about allergens in our products? Via our Sharepoint environment, our clients have access to the Safety Information Data Sheets that provide this information. Do you have other questions? Feel free to contact us.