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How to Care for Your Brushes
Properly
Madeleine Jacobs
www.ArmChairPaintClasses.com
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Keep Your Brushes for Many Years
If you've
spent good money on good quality brushes, then you've probably got quite
an investment in them and will want to know how to take care of them so
that they will last you for quite some time. You'll want to get your money
out of them and make them last as long as them as they possibly can.
You'll be surprised at how many years you can use them for with good care.
If taken good care of, a high quality brush can last as much as 20 years
or more! So there's no need to replace a brush before it's due if you
follow a few of these tips. |
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When you're
done painting, clean your brushes right away. Don't let them sit in a
container to get misshapen. Don't allow the paint to dry in the
bristles, either. You can use a commercial cleaner to clean dried paint
that has dried in the bristles and then clean the bristles with soap and
water, Then reshape. but 1. it's easier to keep it free from dried paint
in the first place and 2. cleaning your brushes from dried paint after
the fact doesn't always remove the paint as well I found as cleaning the
brushes after painting from the beginning.
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While
painting with your brushes and between use, soak your brushes in water
or solvent to keep the paint from drying in the hair. A brush holder
that will hold the brushes suspended in the liquid, without crushing the
hair, is an excellent investment. I like to use one that has coils at
the top; it looks a bit like springs or a tension clip. The brush is
held in between the spring when not in use with the bristles in fluid,
just above the bottom so that the bristles do not bend or get damaged.
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Brushes should dry
upright because if they don't, then the bristles will bend and be
misshapen. I tip them upside down so that the bristles are in the air
and the handles are in the in container. I let the bristles air dry
before I store them. A Tupperware container or a toolbox works great for
me. When they're dry, I lay them flat to store. I also try to keep them separate. Smaller brushes on one level, larger
one on the bottom. Watercolor separate from Oil brushes etc. Don't store
heavy items on top of your brushes that might damage the brushes,
misshape the bristles or break the handles and you should be ok.
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I'm kind of bad about this so I'm
going to give you 'don't do as I do, do as I say say' advice. I have a
bad tendency to keep my brushes in water that is a bit past the depth of
the ferrules an up to the handles. It wears on the wooden handles and
then splits the wood, then eventually cracking the finish and the handle
itself. Again, not a major issue on a cheap brush easily replaced, but a
$30, $50 or $100 brush, yes, it IS an issue. Actually, it's good
practice to keep any brush in good shape. If
you get into practice of keeping a cheap brush into good shape, you'll
have no difficulty in keeping your high quality high dollar brushes in
good shape, right? Just keep enough water or cleaner in your container
to cover the brush head and not up the to wooden handle....do as I
say...not as I do :)))
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Don't mix
your brushes....don't use your watercolor brushes with with acrylics,
don't use the oils with watercolors and don't use the acrylics with the
oils. You get the idea. Get specific brushes for specific mediums and
keep them for that specific use. Don't mix them. If you do, and then
switch back, you won't get the same performance. If you do paint with
them, and expect the same results, you'll just
be disappointed.
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I've painted a cow
skull once, using some of my acrylic brushes. It had an incredibly rough
surface and wore my brushes out really fast. Fortunately they weren't
overly expensive. And a good thing, too, because I wore them almost down
to the ferrules. So the number one rule would be, DON'T use your most
expensive brushes on any rough surfaces because you'll wear them down to
the nubbins. Buy some inexpensive ones you can easily afford to buy
again. NOTE; And
as an aside, keep your worn out ones to use for some special effects. I
found out that worn out ones made great painting tools that were
fantastic brushes that I wouldn't have gotten any other way!
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During storage, a
great way to keep brushes in good shape and get and keep them in
condition is to use a natural oil. In between painting times, and after
you have cleaned them well with a good cleaning solvent, or then cleaned
them with soap and water, you can clean your natural bristle brushes
with a natural oil by working a few drops of oil into the tips of each
brush head and then working that oil into the bristles gently with your
finger tips. Re-shape the tips of your brushes if necessary. Roll your
brushes up gently into a heavy towel for a couple of weeks til you're
ready to paint, then wash out the oil.
February 2/2 2007
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