The video below addresses the issue of valved masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and shows you exactly why it doesn’t work for that purpose by showing the insides of the valve!

I decided on the spur of the moment last night to make one more last ditch effort to inform the public more widely about the risks of wearing valved masks du...

I decided on the spur of the moment Friday night to make one more last ditch effort to inform the public more widely about the risks of wearing valved masks during the Covid 19 / Coronavirus pandemic.
I just couldn't let go of the fact that the CDC is not making this clear enough last I looked, the WHO is not making this clear, virtually no officials talk about it when masks are discussed, I'm not sure why. Could be, the CDC language on valved masks is outdated, and people need to know it's incomplete.
*The SF government page just updated their mask guidance to reflect the valve issue, but they are so far the only gvt or public health source that has made it clear.

The CDC only mentions that valved respirators (masks) should not be worn by health care workers in sterile environments like emergency rooms but does not tell you why, and neglects to let you know that we should not be wearing them to prevent spread of Coronavirus / Covid 19.
They probably assumed that we would not be infected with an invisible and asymptomatic virus, or that doctors would be healthy if they didn't have symptoms and not in danger of infecting others.

In this video I take one of those valves apart so you can see exactly how useless they are in protecting anyone but the wearer. These were made mostly for carpentry / resin work and smoke protection, which is why I see them worn all over here in California due to the fires and smoke pollution the last few years. For that purpose, these valved masks are great!

But, bystanders need to know and behave as if that person wearing a valved mask is sick and wearing no mask, not feeling a false sense of security. Wearers need to know that a valved mask is not sufficient on its own to prevent spread - it only protects one way, protecting the wearer from contagion, but we are supposed to be wearing masks so as not to infect our neighbors unknowingly, not only protecting ourselves. If you are informed of this you can wear a cloth mask or surgical mask over it to prevent viral particles from escaping from the hole or perhaps tape over the valve.
We should be staying home anyway, but when we can't I see people all over wearing these, probably not realizing they aren't helping to contain spread.

I know this is not fairy related, but hey, I put ears on for y'all! Makeup too but I can't say as much for my hair. This was actually done around 10pm so I did not bother with being very fancy this time and shot it with the front camera of my phone, which is why the writing on the valve is backwards, woops!
The wings will be back again, I promise.

I just want to help in some way to prevent any needless illness or death if I can.
Stores should know this, hospitals should know this, everyone needs to know so we can keep everyone safe.
With more orders given county or state wide to wear masks in public, less and less people are being exposed and more people are protected, but wearing these doesn't just contaminate the air around you for a few seconds. It can stay in the air for much longer as we already know, and can contaminate nearby surfaces.

Please spread the word, the awareness of this information could mean life or death for someone you love. For more on how to properly wear, remove, and care for your masks: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/well/live/coronavirus-face-mask-mistakes.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/well/live/coronavirus-face-masks-guides-protection-personal-protective-equipment.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-best-face-masks.html

For a user self seal check to make sure you have a good fit: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2018-130/pdfs/2018-130.pdf?id=10.26616/NIOSHPUB2018130

And a special thank you to the SF government site for being one of the few that warns against wearing valved masks! https://sf.gov/information/masks-and-face-coverings-coronavirus-outbreak?fbclid=IwAR34F1a7D7DKpe71WN_eBdMjWABUJBzLBPWKgy-sHfkmhLxRYsb_pOMYS5Q

And remember;
Stay safe and stay home! Continue to practice physical distancing, masks are only an additional step.
Now, if only the stores would let us buy toilet paper for delivery or pickup :/

Logo animation by Anthony Enos.

I hope you are all well and safe, fancy fairies.

I know for so many of us not just in the US but all around the world, it's been a rough couple of weeks and might get rougher.

The good news is, as far as we know at this moment, the vendors that handle the metal cutting and the powder coating for me are both in business through this pandemic lockdown as they are apparently considered 'essential businesses'!
I also have some wing frames that I had already gotten cut and coated so it looks like I'm still in business.
Whether you all still will want to spend on wings is a question I don't know the answer to, but if you do I'll still be offering.

The bad news is my boyfriend's father passed away unexpectedly this weekend :(
He had just lost his mother not even 2 years ago yet, so this has been hard - especially on top of the panic of knowing we all will be in isolation for possibly more than 3 weeks and the dangers of catching this virus or someone else we care about getting ill.
Actually even any illness or injury no matter if it's from this or not would be bad because experts expect that the hospitals will soon fill up with COVID19 patients and any other health issues will have to be pushed aside unless it's an emergency.

To make sure everyone stays safe, we are not going to be traveling to visit any family, as our area is on lockdown anyway, and we aren't supposed to be coming into contact with anyone we don't live with unless absolutely necessary.
Not just because I'm in danger if I catch it, but because we could have it ourselves and not even know, and there aren't enough test kits yet to test even all the people with COVID symptoms.

This is on the heels of helping out my mom, who was very sick a few weeks ago with cough and fever, and who got sick AGAIN last week but thankfully the fever only lasted a day that time. When it all started she had a fever for at least a week or more, with a bad cough.
But, would Kaiser test her?
No.
Not then.
Not now either.

Thankfully I had bought myself an R95 mask last year to use during soldering projects, and since I haven't gotten around to much of that it was pretty new still! It has all the same filtering that the N95 masks do but with the addition of filtering oily particles.
It was like finding gold - it meant I could at least go in and talk to my mom for a few minutes and drop off some essentials to her without risking either transmission from me if I am a mystery carrier, and without risking catching in case she was. She also wore a mask when I saw her.
Just so you know these form to my face and have a good seal - it's harder to breathe while wearing, that's how I know it's doing its job. I don't touch the front not even when I take it off.
It goes right back into the plastic clam shell container with a paper towel over the front of it so it's not even touching the inside of the package and I haven't touched it at all since Monday evening after getting back from mom's.

*Also an FYI - the type that have the air flow valve do NOT filter the air being exhaled.
Only the air being inhaled. I am using the couple I have left for sanding, the valve helps the moisture and heat build up when I'm getting sweaty from it.
Again, since we are all supposed to change our behavior and act as if we are the carrier, since we all could be, I don't wear those out for any virus protection since it would not protect anyone else.
The R95 I do wear out for that has no valve and should protect both ways and I’m not going out around people unless really necessary.

I wear rubber gloves that I throw away right when I leave and I still wash my hands when I got home, sterilized my phone, etc.

I'm washing my hands a LOT. They are not happy about it, as I have eczema but I make sure to use a good hand moisturizing cream whenever I do and they're hanging in there.

Everything is clean when I'm working, as I've got my hands washed and tools sanitized, and by the time deliveries would reach you it would be past the 3 day mark that apparently AFAIK is the longest that the virus is lasting on a surface like plastic.
If you're concerned, you can always put it aside out of the way somewhere for an additional few days just to make sure any virus that might try to hang on is good and dead.

We aren't going out, except to walk outside and if we need groceries I go with the mask and a fresh set of gloves, trying to space out the use of that mask by a few days so that hopefully anything on it will be dead by the time I touch it next.
I've even considered trying to sterilize it with my UV light oven, but have to confirm that those lights work for this purpose. I’m not a source for medical advice, but these are the things we’ve been doing to get by since there are shortages and I have asthma.

Perhaps this will give me more time, once we are over this initial shock, to do more tutorials and make more content? I hope so.
Maybe photo shoots outside, as long as we wouldn't be fined for it as the weather will soon be nice and there should be things blooming. There's a great little wildflower area on a bike path near us that has sections to walk through, we didn't get to shoot there last year but maybe this year we'll make it happen!

All that said, I want to thank all of you for supporting my art. I appreciate each and every one of you for being here and hope to offer you all more wing goodies as soon as I have a chance. <3