Just add water to use eco-kids' eco-fingerpaints made from all
natural and organic ingredients. (credit: Renée Carver)
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Eco-friendly kids products at the 2009 Chicago Green Festival
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Chicago families visiting the 2009 Green Festival at Navy Pier could learn about eco-kids™ line of ecologically friendly art supplies and other green products, including eco-dough and eco-fingerpaint.
About eco-kids' eco-friendly art products
Kip and Cammie Weeks, the founders of eco-kids, began developing their line of ecologically friendly art products both in response to the many toy recalls of the last few years and after an incident in which their child ate a lot of commercial play dough.
Cammie's mother knew how to make homemade play dough, so the Weekses tried out her recipe first. It was a good start, but they were also interested in making play dough from only natural, organic ingredients. They began discussing how to do this with an organic farmer and a friend who was a professor and an environmental expert.
Through experimentation, the Weekses developed first a line of eco-dough and then a line of eco-fingerpaint, all free from artificial dyes, metals, and chemicals.
Kip points out that they are not necessarily doing something new, but rather returning play dough and paints to what they were before businesses came in and started using chemicals and other possibly unhealthy substances to manufacture art supplies for kids. Basically, they are just dehydrating and mixing together fruits and vegetables!
Eco-kids eco-dough
The eco-dough sold by eco-kids comes in colors like pink, orange, white, blue, green and yellow, and is available in a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free version. Made only from natural substances extracted from plants, fruits, and vegetables, if eco-dough dries out, it can be softened again with a drop or so of olive oil. It is full of natural preservatives and should not mold. Kip mentioned that they have a control batch that is 6 months old and still fresh! Eco-dough is packaged in individual clear 100% compostable containers made from cornstarch and sold together in a tube.
Eco-kids eco-fingerpaint
The eco-fingerpaints come in powder form and are also packaged in compostable cornstarch containers bundled together in a tube. Painters just add water in a 1:1 ratio and mix to produce bright colors like green, blue, yellow, and purple. Reusable extra containers are provided for mixing paint.
Other eco-kids products
In addition to their eco-conscious play doughs and paints, eco-kids currently sells a sustainable bamboo rolling pin for clay play and fun wooden eco-puzzles of geometric shapes that are made from 100% sustainably forested and FSC-certified Radiata pine from New Zealand.
Soon, eco-kids is planning to make and sell more green art products like eco-friendly paint brushes and cookie cutters for play dough play manufactured from an eco-conscious material like post-consumer plastic.
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