Problem with The Masters Brush Cleaner
Tony Max
When I swirl my dirty brushes into it, some of the paint from the
brushes is transferred to the brush cleaner tub.
Then, after I clean my brushes with water and paper towels, I swirl the
brushes again into the brush cleaner, and the brushes become dirty again
because they pick up some of the paint that was transferred with the
previously swirling to the brush cleaner soap.
Dik F. Liu
If you do, the bristle will fray as it dries. Also, unless you scrub your brush
very thoroughly, there will be residue oil paint at the ferrule. As oil paint
dries, it contracts. When it does, the bristle will flare out from the ferrule.
Besides: Think how much time you spend cleaning brushes each painting day.
Instead, don't clean your brush. When you are done painting, dump your brushes
into a bucket of oil. The next day, pick up your brushes and wipe off the oil,
and you are ready to rock 'n' roll.
Dik
Andrew D
(Dik F. Liu) wrote:
+If you are painting with oils, do not clean your brushes with soap and water.
+If you do, the bristle will fray as it dries. Also, unless you scrub your brush
+very thoroughly, there will be residue oil paint at the ferrule. As oil paint
+dries, it contracts. When it does, the bristle will flare out from the ferrule.
+Besides: Think how much time you spend cleaning brushes each painting day.
+Instead, don't clean your brush. When you are done painting, dump your brushes
+into a bucket of oil. The next day, pick up your brushes and wipe off the oil,
+and you are ready to rock 'n' roll.
What kind of oil? I guess linseed oil is okay if you use the brush bvvery
often, but what if you only paint occasionally?
Andy.
"I'm a great speller - but a hopless tpyist!"
Dik F. Liu
right@the_end.of.my_tether (Andrew D) writes:
>What kind of oil? I guess linseed oil is okay if you use the brush bvvery
>often, but what if you only paint occasionally?
I use Linseed oil. If you can remember wiping the oil thoroughly off your
brushes before you paint, you can also use baby oil. This is a non-drying oil.
So, do wipe it off thoroughly. Another option is to use citric thinner, which
is just a mixture of mineral oil and food quality citric peel oil.
Dik
Tony Max
Where can citric thinner be bought? A hardware store? What's it normally
used for?
Thanks.
Tony
Tony Max
>
> If you are painting with oils, do not clean your brushes with soap and water.
> If you do, the bristle will fray as it dries. Also, unless you scrub your brush
> very thoroughly, there will be residue oil paint at the ferrule. As oil paint
> dries, it contracts. When it does, the bristle will flare out from the ferrule.
> Besides: Think how much time you spend cleaning brushes each painting day.
Yes, all that time and effort is part of the problem, as well as the
fact that my brushes quickly become frayed!
> Instead, don't clean your brush. When you are done painting, dump your brushes
> into a bucket of oil. The next day, pick up your brushes and wipe off the oil,
> and you are ready to rock 'n' roll.
You mean that overnight all the paint comes out of the brushes because
of having been soaked in oil, even after a long day of painting with
water-soluble oils?
What about the restriction that brushes aren't supposed to be stored
vertically, because the bristles will bend?
Thanks.
Tony
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>Where can citric thinner be bought? A hardware store? What's it normally used
for?<
You can buy it from Pearl Paint. It is a turpentine substitute, and is used for
painting boats, houses and so forth because it is environmentally safe. For
some reasons it isn't very popular with artists yet. It is pricy, about $40
per gallon. But it vaporizes much, much more slowly than turpentine. So you
needn't worry about this expensive stuff vaporizing.
Dik
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>You mean that overnight all the paint comes out of the brushes because of
having been soaked in oil, even after a long day of painting with water-soluble
oils?<
You should still rinse the brushes with turpentine before dumping them into the
oil. The brushes do not clean themselves. The paint does loosen but the
brushes pick up the soiled paint from the bottom of the bucket. When you pick
up the brushes the next day, you need to wipe off the loosened paint.
However, you can actually make a self-cleaning brush cleaner. Take two tall
tapered plastic buckets - like the kind used for large soups from Chinese
take-out. Take one bucket and poke a few holes in its bottom. I use an electric
drill. Now stack that bucket onto the other one. There will be a 3/4" gap
between the two buckets. Next, pour a few inches of oil onto the bucket. If you
now soak the brushes on the buckets, the soiled paint will loosen, and
overnight it settles through the holes onto that 3/4" gap. This also ensures
that the oil is always clean. And you only need to change the oil about once a
year.
>What about the restriction that brushes aren't supposed to be stored
vertically, because the bristles will bend?<
The bristle won't bend as long as you have enough oil in the bucket. I use
about 1-1/2" to 2 inches. Even my long filberts keep their shape. I don't know
how to explain it; but the oil somehow cushions the fall of the brushes.
Sable brushes are a different matter. I once used them and had to soak them in
a pan so to keep the sable in shape.
Dik
Chris
Another trick I've found that'll keep brushes in good shape is to clean
them in turpentine, brush off the excess onto paper towel, and then wrap
them in a bit of Saran Wrap. It keeps the paint residues from drying for
quite a long time.
Cheers;
Chris
Maud Lynn
>What about the restriction that brushes aren't supposed to be stored
>vertically, because the bristles will bend?
I disagree with all of the stated opinions
so far, including this one about vertical
storage. I've been storing mine vertically
for over 30 years - and yes, some of my
brushes are that old! Since I switch between
oil and acrylic, and use different brushes
for different mediums, my oil brushes may
go for a month or more without use. Therefore
I clean them THOROUGHLY after each painting
session UNLESS I plan to use them the next
day again, in which case I store the dirty
oil brushes overnight - vertically, bristles
down - in a jar of mineral spirits.
For a final cleaning, before storing my
brushes, whether artificial or natural bristle,
I soap with Ivory soap until all traces of
color are gone, then rinse by running water
UP INTO the ferrule end, all the while gently
massaging the bristles between thumb and
forefinger. My bristles do NOT flare when
they are returned to a vertical storage mode
with bristles up.
For bristles that do get damaged or flared,
a simple heating in nearly boiling water
will often correct the flare or bent bristle.
For really long term storage I will dip
my brushes into either baby oil or lanolin
and shape the bristles between my fingers.
Nylon brushes I'll dip into gum arabic, which
is water soluble, and since the nylons are
used for acrylic anyway, the next time I use
them I simply dissolve the gum in water.
Dik F. Liu
writes:
>Another trick I've found that'll keep brushes in good shape is to clean them
in turpentine, brush off the excess onto paper towel, and then wrap them in a
bit of Saran Wrap. It keeps the paint residues from drying for quite a long
time.<
Chris, I did that a few times when I needed to take the brushes from one venue
to another. I have a few students who do just that too, when they have to take
these brushes home for painting. Using your trick their brushes do stay supple.
Something that I have seen other painters do is to just load the brushes up
with globs of soiled paint from the palette, and dump them into a bucket of
water. The bristle never touches the water because they are saturated with wet
soiled oil paint. And the oil paint doesn't dry because oil paint doesn't dry
in water. And of course, the oil paint and water stay separate because water
and oil don't mix. The next day the painter just pick up the brushes and wipe
off the soiled paint and off he goes.
This trick works a little less well then the others we discussed. That's
because if the brushes stay in the water for more than a week, the oil paint
gets a bit gunky. It doesn't dry, just gets gunky. And the gunky paint can be a
chore to wipe off.
I think that the common theme among these techniques, is to never let even the
smallest hints of oil paint dries in the bristle; and that we don't obsessively
clean our brushes with soap and water because, well, we don't have to.
Dik
Chris
funny too that more don't do it, as it is the way we store oil based
intaglio inks.
Maybe I'll give it a try.
Cheers;
Chris
Tony Max
>
> I think that the common theme among these techniques, is to never let even the
> smallest hints of oil paint dries in the bristle; and that we don't obsessively
> clean our brushes with soap and water because, well, we don't have to.
What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
The paint is often in my brushes for 17 hours a day (although I'm not
painting all of that time, because of taking breaks for phone calls,
housework, computer work, eating, shopping, etcetera).
I've got Grumbacher Quick Dry medium (as well as linseed oil and water)
in those brushes all day long.
Joseph Bennett
I agree with almost everything you said, and am kind of amused at the
various and sundry ways painters find to try to avoid that nasty chore
of cleaning the brushes.
Since well into the last century (I made my first oil painting at about
age ten, around 1942 or so), I have cleaned bristle brushes by repeated
rinsings in turpentine until almost all of the pigment is gone, and then
at the end of day, sometime after dinner, washed them thoroughly in
tepid water and with Ivory soap. I do not know why you choose Ivory,
but I picked it not for mildness, but because it is white and thus
discloses even slight traces of pigment which might remain near the ferrule.
I shake the bristle dry -- towel dry the handle, but not the bristle --
hand shape the bristle with my fingers, and set them horizontally on my
worktable, bristle dangling over the edge in space, to dry. This drying
horizontally idea, by the way, comes from Isabey, who point out that
drying brushes vertically, bristle up, invites water to settle at the
ferrule, in time eroding the integrity of the ferrule and quite possibly
ruining the brush.
I have never, ever had bristles "flare" using this method, with many
kinds of hog brushes, and have found that the more expensive brushes,
Rafael Paris Classics and Isabey Specials for instance, "release" the
pigment quickly and cleanly after proper rinsing in turpentine. I have
had some of these brushes for years.
My only idiosyncrasy -- regarding brush cleaning -- is that I do not
allow brushes to stand in turpentine for any length of time. To rinse,
I use one of Richeson's large virtual buckets, with the settling rack
insert, but with the wire brush holders removed. I rinse them and then
set them aside until the end of day for washing. Sitting in turpentine,
I believe, will do more harm then good, and really isn't necessary.
By the way, I tried the wipe-leave in oil overnight system for a time,
but quickly went back to the tried and true method taught by a couple of
pretty good ol' boys back in Philadelphia years and years ago. As to
brushes that have flared, from whatever reason, you might try another
trick of theirs... treat the brushes with some of your own hair
conditioner. This works well, I am told, on natural bristle, but
naturally, won't do a thing for synthetics. The conditioner supposedly
restores the supple quality of the bristle.
Regards....
Marilyn Welch
If I may, based on a research chemist with 35 years experience at Sherwin
Williams:
All traces of turpentine should be washed and rinsed from the brush.
The brushes can be rinsed in fabric softener (it was originally formulated
for brushes). While still wet, they can be wrapped in paper held on with
elastic, this keeps their shape while drying and protects the fibres.
Paper as opposed to plastic because paper breathes.
Marilyn
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
>
>The paint is often in my brushes for 17 hours a day (although I'm not
>painting all of that time, because of taking breaks for phone calls,
>housework, computer work, eating, shopping, etcetera).
>
>I've got Grumbacher Quick Dry medium (as well as linseed oil and water)
>in those brushes all day long.
I have one class of students working with these water-soluble oil paints. When
the class ends, they just dump their brushes into a jar of oil. That's it! It
sure saves them the time needed to clean brushes. Many of them use peanut oil
or baby oil. These are non-drying oils, so they do need to take care to wipe
the oil off before painting. Drying oils as linseed and safflower oils are more
suited for careless painters like me.
I have never used the Grumbacher Quick Dry. How is it? I have used the W&N
Quick Dry and am unenthuse about it. One medium concoction I mix is 3 parts
water soluble stand oil, 1 part Quick Dry, 1/2 part water soluble linseed oil.
I have also managed to add a tad of real Venice Turpentine into this mixture,
and have found that the medium is still water soluble.
Dik
Tony Max
>
> In article <3B4B4FFA...@design-write.com>, Tony Max
> <to...@design-write.com> writes:
>
> >What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
> >
> >The paint is often in my brushes for 17 hours a day (although I'm not
> >painting all of that time, because of taking breaks for phone calls,
> >housework, computer work, eating, shopping, etcetera).
> >
> >I've got Grumbacher Quick Dry medium (as well as linseed oil and water)
> >in those brushes all day long.
>
> I have one class of students working with these water-soluble oil paints. When
> the class ends, they just dump their brushes into a jar of oil. That's it! It
> sure saves them the time needed to clean brushes. Many of them use peanut oil
> or baby oil. These are non-drying oils, so they do need to take care to wipe
> the oil off before painting. Drying oils as linseed and safflower oils are more
> suited for careless painters like me.
Great! I'm going to a hardware store for linseed oil today. (I think it
would be cheaper than the linseed oil from Grumbacher, which is $7.50
(Canadian) for two and-a-half ounces (74 millilitres).
It seems to me linseed oil should be safe, since that's what the
manufacturer recommends as a medium. (Some of the safflower oil or
linseed oil residue will end up in the painting).
> I have never used the Grumbacher Quick Dry. How is it?
I find it a hassle to have to add a few drops of it to every little pile
of paint, but I think that is a necessary compromise, because the result
is that I can control the drying time by adjusting the amount of Quick
Dry I add; if I have a lot of blending to do, I don't add Quick Dry.
On the other hand, Holbein's Duo Aqua water-soluble oil paint dries by
itself in about one day, so you can't (as far as I know) prolong the
drying time if you have a lot of blending to do.
Tony
Tony Max
>
> In article <3B4B4FFA...@design-write.com>, Tony Max
> <to...@design-write.com> writes:
>
> >What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
> >
> >The paint is often in my brushes for 17 hours a day (although I'm not
> >painting all of that time, because of taking breaks for phone calls,
> >housework, computer work, eating, shopping, etcetera).
> >
> >I've got Grumbacher Quick Dry medium (as well as linseed oil and water)
> >in those brushes all day long.
>
> I have one class of students working with these water-soluble oil paints. When
> the class ends, they just dump their brushes into a jar of oil. That's it! It
> sure saves them the time needed to clean brushes.
Thanks, Dik!
Would you advise tossing the brushes into the tub if I know I'm going to
break for an hour or two?
I'm concerned that some of the fraying of the bristles may be occurring
during the day when I my painting is paused and the Quick Dry is in the
brushes (along with the linseed oil and water that I've mixed into the paint).
Tony
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>Would you advise tossing the brushes into the tub if I know I'm going to break
for an hour or two?<
Tony, when I paint with oils, I just leave the brushes out when I break for
lunch. The paints won't dry on the brushes. When I paint with alkyd, I usually
dump the brushes on the brush cleaning tub which is filled with citric thinner
(I don't use turpentine.) That's because I have find that the citric thinner is
easily to wipe off than linseed oil. You might do it differently from I do.
Dik
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>Great! I'm going to a hardware store for linseed oil today. (I think it would
be cheaper than the linseed oil from Grumbacher, which is $7.50 (Canadian) for
two and-a-half ounces (74 millilitres).<
The hardware store variety is usually raw or hot pressed. So, be sure that you
don't mix too much of it in with the paint. Other options are Hains walnut oil,
which is cold pressed (I confirmed with their tech head about this.) As I said,
mineral oil and baby oil work too so long that you wipe them off the brushes
before use them. In my studio I only linseed oil for medium and for the brush
tub. The Utrecht variety cost about $8 a quart. Tony, why is linseed oil so
expensive in Canada? Can you mail order it from Utrecht? If so, this is
cheaper.
The double bucket contraption I wrote of makes the oil much clearer. I have had
students who lined the bottom of the bucket with plain wired scrubbing pads
(the kind you get from supermarket). The pads trap the soiled paint. It seems
to work well but as I haven't tried it myself, I can't recommend it.
>On the other hand, Holbein's Duo Aqua water-soluble oil paint dries by itself
in about one day, so you can't (as far as I know) prolong the drying time if
you have a lot of blending to do.<
I did not know that the Holbein dries faster. I have students buying Max and
Max 2 as they are cheaper. As I teach a type of paintingly painting and we
often paint thickly, price is an important concern. In my studio I use mostly
regular oil paints or alkyd.
Dik
Tony Max
>
> In article <3B4B7EE4...@design-write.com>, Tony Max
> <to...@design-write.com> writes:
>
> >Great! I'm going to a hardware store for linseed oil today. (I think it would
> be cheaper than the linseed oil from Grumbacher, which is $7.50 (Canadian) for
>
> The hardware store variety is usually raw or hot pressed. So, be sure that you
> don't mix too much of it in with the paint. Other options are Hains walnut oil,
> which is cold pressed (I confirmed with their tech head about this.) As I said,
> mineral oil and baby oil work too so long that you wipe them off the brushes
> before use them. In my studio I only linseed oil for medium and for the brush
> tub. The Utrecht variety cost about $8 a quart. Tony, why is linseed oil so
> expensive in Canada? Can you mail order it from Utrecht? If so, this is
> cheaper.
As I predicted, the conventional linseed oil at the paint supply store
is cheaper ($6.49 for a liter, which I think is almost a gallon).
But I didn't like the warning on the bottle of double-boiled, 'drying'
linseed oil. It says not to leave the open linseed oil container in a
closed room and that linseed-soaked rags can spontaneously burst into
flames. And I had trouble opening the damn container, which has a safety
ring on it, so I stopped trying to open the container and went to a
supermarket and bought a liter of sunflower oil instead and I'm using
that now and I'm going to try to return the linseed oil to the paint store.
> The double bucket contraption I wrote of makes the oil much clearer. I have had
> students who lined the bottom of the bucket with plain wired scrubbing pads
> (the kind you get from supermarket). The pads trap the soiled paint. It seems
> to work well but as I haven't tried it myself, I can't recommend it.
Do you mean the ones made of brown, metal wire? Maybe sponges would work.
I used a tall, plastic container and lined the bottom with one-inch-high
plastic cups. Onto that platform I placed a yogurt container lid, which
I had pierced in several places with a knife. Then I dumped the
safflower oil and the brushes into the container.
> >On the other hand, Holbein's Duo Aqua water-soluble oil paint dries by itself
> in about one day, so you can't (as far as I know) prolong the drying time if
> you have a lot of blending to do.<
>
> I did not know that the Holbein dries faster. I have students buying Max and
> Max 2 as they are cheaper. As I teach a type of paintingly painting and we
> often paint thickly, price is an important concern. In my studio I use mostly
> regular oil paints or alkyd.
>
> Dik
Max 2s are cheap. Maxes are expensive.
Tony Max
Tony Max
Thanks, Dik.
I don't even know what alkyd is. I'm using only water-soluble oil paints now.
Frank
Forever the fountain of knowledge...REAL painters use PURE GUM
TURPENTINE in small studios with no windows, and LOTS of it!...sorry I
missed your show...thanks for the card!
Frank
www.frankgregory.com
Tony Max <to...@design-write.com> wrote in message news:<3B4BED18...@design-write.com>...
Peter H.M. Brooks
Frank <verti...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c31ee42a.01071...@posting.google.com...
> Dik,
>
> Forever the fountain of knowledge...REAL painters use PURE GUM
> TURPENTINE in small studios with no windows, and LOTS of it
>
lines of what 'real programmers' do - it might be fun!
--
Si latet ars, prodest - Ovid
Art is a lie that makes us see the truth - Picasso
NightMist
<pe...@new.co.za> wrote:
>
>Frank <verti...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:c31ee42a.01071...@posting.google.com...
>> Dik,
>>
>> Forever the fountain of knowledge...REAL painters use PURE GUM
>> TURPENTINE in small studios with no windows, and LOTS of it
>>
>Somebody might compile a list about what 'real artists' do - along the
>lines of what 'real programmers' do - it might be fun!
>
De-lurking again.....
Wouldn't it be easier to give a list of what "real artists" don't do?
NightMist
who has been told she is not a "real artist" for reasons rangeing from
"you paint in acrylics" to "you sold a painting!"
re-lurking
Frank
> "Wouldn't it be easier to give a list of what "real artists" don't do?"
Believe it or not I have been told in all seriousness, "Today, REAL
Artists don't paint..."
Frank
NightMist
Alas, I have been told this as well.
Best I can tell, "Real" artists drape parachutes over city hall and
prance about naked in front of it with tinfoil over their wabbly bits.
After they have called the press of course.....
NightMist
But, but, but...I LIKE painting....
Frank
"Best I can tell, "Real" artists drape parachutes over city hall and
> prance about naked in front of it with tinfoil over their wabbly bits."
I must confess this I WOULD like to see...
Frank
Tony Max
> >What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
Dik wrote:
> Tony, I use the double bucket concoction I wrote about in the board. The
> concoction cheap and easy to make and last for years. You do need to change
> the oil every year or so. As for my students, I have one who just stuff a
> copper scrubbing pad (the wire porous type) to a jar and it seems to work
> fine. Another student used a plastic pad but it kept floating to the top! Yet
> another variety is to take an empty tuna can and drill a few small holes to
> its bottom lid (from the outside) . Then put it upside-down into the jar.
> This gets a bit tricky because the jar needs to be just the right diameter.
The holes in the tuna can would have to be small the prevent the small
brushes from falling into the holes.
> By the way, since you as I don't clean the brushes with soap and water, and
> just soak them in oil, you might be tempted to use many brushes for painting.
> That's because you needn't worry about cleaning all those brushes. So you can
> use many brushes to keep your colors clean. This makes it harder to keep
> track of brushes when they are in the bucket. As a solution, I color code my
> brushes. So, all my 4 flats have white handles. All 6 flats have blue
> handles, and so forth. That way I know the size of the brushes before I pick
> them up from the bucket, and needn't pick up the brushes just to check the
> size.
Thanks, Dik.
I'm finding that the brush bristles DO bend somewhat because of being
placed vertically in my plastic canister with sunflower oil in it.
I don't know why some artists find that their bristles don't bend while
the brushes are resting in oil.
Tony
Tony Max
>
> Maud...
>
> I agree with almost everything you said, and am kind of amused at the
> various and sundry ways painters find to try to avoid that nasty chore
> of cleaning the brushes.
Thanks, Joseph.
There are various ways to manage brushes, as indicated by this thread.
Since various ways work, why not use them?
Also, this chain of letters has to do with cleaning brushes of both
tradional oil and water-soluble oil paint, and because those types of
paints differ, the cleaning methods also necessarily differ.
I find it effective to place dirty (water-soluble oil) brushes into a
canister of sunflow oil overnight, instead of cleaning them, (as
recommended in this group by Dik F. Lui) because it can take me 20
minutes every day to thorougly clean a dozen dirty brushes that have had
paint and drying medium in them for up to 18 hours a day, because the
paint just keeps coming out onto the paper towels.
Twenty minutes a day adds up after a while.
(I use 100 percent recycled paper towels, and try to use as few as
possible, to be environmentally responsible.)
Rinsing the brushes in a special jar of water (that has water-soluble
paint sediment in it from previous cleanings) didn't speed the cleaning
process for me, and I think that's because I had the paint and drying
medium in the brushes all day long before cleaning the brushes.
Tony
Dik F. Liu
verti...@hotmail.com (Frank) writes:
>Believe it or not I have been told in all seriousness, "Today, REAL
>Artists don't paint..."
Right, and real men use DOS. Good to see you on-line, Frank.
Dik
Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
> because it can take me 20 minutes every day to thorougly clean a dozen dirty
brushes that have had paint and drying medium in them for up to 18 hours a day,
because the paint just keeps coming out onto the paper towels. Twenty minutes
a day adds up after a while.<
Actually, that's easy to calculate.
Let's say you paint 5 days a week (many painters, as I, paint more often than
that). Well, painting 5 days a week means 100 minutes of brush cleaning per
week. In one year, that would be 5200 minutes, or 86 hours and 40 minutes of
brush cleaning per year.
Now, let's assume you began painting when you were 21, and quit or died when
you are 68. If you clean your brushes after every painting day, during your
life you would have clean your brushes for a total of 4073 hours and 20
minutes.
That means if you clean your brushes after every painting day, throughout your
life your brush cleaning time would equate to non-stop brush cleaning for 169
days, 17 hours, and 20 minutes.
Dik
Tony Max
I noticed that you calculated brush cleaning for 52 weeks of the year,
Dik. That must be because artists don't take vacations, because they're
too busy cleaning their brushes! ;-)
Tony
Tony Max
> On Mon, 16 Jul 2001 14:56:12 GMT, in rec.arts.fine Tony Max wrote:
>>
>>>> What would you do when painting all day with water-soluble oil paints?
>>
>> Dik wrote:
>>
>>> Tony, I use the double bucket concoction I wrote about in the board.
The
>>> concoction cheap and easy to make and last for years. You do need to
change
>>> the oil every year or so. As for my students, I have one who just
stuff a
>>> copper scrubbing pad (the wire porous type) to a jar and it seems to
work
>>> fine. Another student used a plastic pad but it kept floating to the
top!
>>> Yet
>>> another variety is to take an empty tuna can and drill a few small
holes to
>>> its bottom lid (from the outside) . Then put it upside-down into the
jar.
>>> This gets a bit tricky because the jar needs to be just the right
diameter.
>>
>> The holes in the tuna can would have to be small the prevent the small
>> brushes from falling into the holes.
'Nightmist' wrote:
>
> OK, I paint in acrylic. I also can't afford the outrageous prices for
> a commercial 'bucket". I do use a couple of jars, one for water, the
> other for brush soap (acrylic targeted, makes cleaning the blessed
> things much easier) I have to clean my brushes all the time, because
> I like natural bristles, and acrylic dries fast and tends to get
> 'glunky' if it sits in water. What I have done, is made a little
> 'tuna can' shape out of plastic needlepoint canvas. I found that my
> smallest brushes did tend to slip through, so I put some plastic
> netting under the top, problem solved. It works fine for me, but I
> don't know what the plastic would do in your oil.
Thanks, Nightmist.
The plastic should be okay; the container that the oil is in is also
made of plastic.
> Friend of mine who
> does oils, cut the handle off of a tea strainer and dropped it into
> his 'standing brush' jar, he says it works great, but he also uses the
> toenail polish thing I mention below, so his brushes wouldn't be
> sliding down the sides of the strainer, which he mostly uses for
> getting paint out of the brush
>
> <snip of Dik's good advice on color codeing>
>>
>> I'm finding that the brush bristles DO bend somewhat because of being
>> placed vertically in my plastic canister with sunflower oil in it.
>>
>> I don't know why some artists find that their bristles don't bend while
>> the brushes are resting in oil.
>
> Roy, my oil painting friend, turned me on to toe separators (used for
> painting toenails). I am sure you have seen them in stores, they are
> often found very cheaply in dollar and liquidation stores. Just
> staple a couple back to back (I imagine you could do it end to end
> too, if the mouth of your jar is wider), and lay or glue them across
> the top of your jar (I opt for just laying them, keeps stuff off when
> I refill the jar, and I don't know what water or brush soap would do
> to the foam stuff they are made from). then wedge your brushes into
> the slots when you put them in the jar, with the bristles suspended,
> not touching bottom. If the ones you got are a little floppy, put a
> stick under them. I am looking into finding some similar foam stuff
> for both my larger and tiny brushes. My girlfriend has suggested
> butchering something nerf, or a slice off a swimming noodle. Any
> road, it is kinder to the brush handles than those springs you see
> everywhere.
Those last two sentences baffle me. "Nerf" isn't in my dictionary, and I
have no idea of what a 'swimming noodle' is.
I've never heard of toe separators before (since I don't paint my
toenails) and would be embarrassed to ask, although I should try to be
brave. But first, can you screw the lid back onto the the jar after
attaching the toe separators to the mouth of the jar? (I'm using a tall,
plastic jar -- originally used for Transform Plus -- the whey protein
isolate powder made by Greens Plus that you can get at your health food
store).
NightMist
wrote:
[this is a sneaky way to get me to delurk!]
I'm sure you have probably seen the toe things in movies or on TV, it
is a plastic foam thing that folk wedge between their toes to keep
them seperated when painting the nails. Sort of a flat strip of foam
stuff with little sections cut out. Cruise the 'girl stuff' section
at the department store, or the nail polish section, you'll see them.
I am amazed that you don't recognize nerf, I thought that line of toys
had invaded every english speaking country on the planet, obviously I
was wrong! Nerf toys are quite simply assorted toys made from foam
rubber. They include everything from balls to crossbows. The foam
they are made of is a bit more dense and durable than your average
foam sponge, which is why my girl suggested it. Swimming noodles are
poles of a harder foam than nerf toys are made of. They are the long
brightly colored sticks you may have seen people messing around with
at the local pool. They are 5 or 6 feet long and go cheap at the end
of summer. They are made for outdoor play and to stand up (for at
least a few months) to constant exposure to public pool levels of
chlorine, so I assume they could handle the meager chems I use.
As to being able to screw the top onto the jar, not they way I do it.
I'm sure you can improvise something though. As I mentioned I can't
leave my brushes to sit, so I have not had to do anything that long
term. I asked Roy, and he just puts some cling film over all and
rubber bands it when he is going to leave it overnight.
NightMist
Tony Max
Thanks, Nightmist. Maybe they have, but I don't pay attention to toy advertising.
Nerf toys are quite simply assorted toys made from foam
> rubber. They include everything from balls to crossbows. The foam
> they are made of is a bit more dense and durable than your average
> foam sponge, which is why my girl suggested it. Swimming noodles are
> poles of a harder foam than nerf toys are made of. They are the long
> brightly colored sticks you may have seen people messing around with
> at the local pool. They are 5 or 6 feet long and go cheap at the end
> of summer. They are made for outdoor play and to stand up (for at
> least a few months) to constant exposure to public pool levels of
> chlorine, so I assume they could handle the meager chems I use.
I have seen those.
I'm glad you explained 'nerf' and 'swimming noodle', Nightmist; I
thought maybe the night mists were affecting your mind adversely! ;
- )
> As to being able to screw the top onto the jar, not they way I do it.
> I'm sure you can improvise something though. As I mentioned I can't
> leave my brushes to sit, so I have not had to do anything that long
> term. I asked Roy, and he just puts some cling film over all and
> rubber bands it when he is going to leave it overnight.
Sounds like a good solution.
> NightMist
Joseph Bennett
Good holy sweet mother! I started painting younger and am ready to
clock 69 in another few months! Fortunately, I have not painted five
days a week all my life, because most of my living was earned from news
reporting, news photography, or press relations management.
But you make a valid point, even if tongue-in-cheek: Those small
chores we do around the studio that are not directly associated with
painting can add up to hours, days, months of our lives, spent in non
productive activity!
Scary.
But then acting maturely, being responsible, politically correct,
environmentally aware and kind to all things living have never been
features of my ethos. Every once in a while, it's great fun to crap
out, let the work go to hell, and eat the whole pint of ice cream in one go!
Regards....
NightMist
wrote:
<snip>
>> I am amazed that you don't recognize nerf, I thought that line of toys
>> had invaded every english speaking country on the planet, obviously I
>> was wrong!
>
>Thanks, Nightmist. Maybe they have, but I don't pay attention to toy advertising.
I've got my own rugrats (rangeing in age from 2 to 20), so toys are
usually brought to my attention, like it or not! <G>
<snip>
>I'm glad you explained 'nerf' and 'swimming noodle', Nightmist; I
>thought maybe the night mists were affecting your mind adversely! ;
>- )
Call me Barbara <G>
I have a person giving me a bit of grief online, so semi-anonymous
posting and a webmail addy have become standard operating procedure
for me. I just have to remember to turn off my brain's auto-pilot
when posting in places where she is unlikely to be lurking.
Barbara aka NightMist
niloufer
one answered, what if you're not an everyday painter? how dyu clean
the brushes properly then? to put away?
Niloufer
www.niloufer.com - and art exploration
Tony Max
> > But then acting maturely, being responsible, politically correct,
> environmentally aware and kind to all things living have never been
> features of my ethos.
In other words you're immature, irresponsible, nasty, an environmental
destroyer and self-centered.
All around, not a very pleasant fellow.
Peter H.M. Brooks
political correctness a virtue has a reasonably severe problem.
--
Want of variety leads to satiety.
Sharon Barcone
niloufer wrote in message ...
When painting, between brush use is run my brushes a few times over the
bottom of a contained I purchased for brushes. The raised platform has holes
for paint to settle and the turpentine clears for long use. I leave the
brushes in the spring in the spring holder until I need to paint with them
again but never up to the handle, to the ferrule only. Then when I want to
use the brush again I swish it in a bit of medium and wipe it so it is ready
to go. At the end of a painting session I wash each with soap and use my
finger nails to splay the bristles and get all the paint out so the water
runs clean. Some people use a brush conditioner and then store their
brushes. I do not as I fear than storing for longer periods may allow the
conditioner to harden the bristles. I store by brushes upright in coffee
cans and if I will not be needing them for a while I put a dowel in the can
that is longer that the longest brush and cover with a large baggy type
plastic bag to keep dust off. The wearing out and damaging of brushes has
long been a concern of artists. I find the biggest contributor to brush
damage is paint and oil left from not properly cleaning them the second
biggest contributor is leaving the brush handles in turpentine for long
periods which damages the connection to the ferrule and eventually loosens
the bristles.
sharon
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Dik F. Liu
<to...@design-write.com> writes:
>I'm finding that the brush bristles DO bend somewhat because of being placed
vertically in my plastic canister with sunflower oil in it.,
Say, what is this?! Didn't you claim that you don't use bristle brushes?
Dik