5 proper caring and cleaning tips for paint brushes

5 Proper Caring and Cleaning Tips for Paint Brushes A good paintbrush collection is a matter of pride for any artist. The collection has probably incurred significant amount of investment and is integral to the daily work of the artist. Therefore, it becomes important to take proper care of these brushes to ensure that they have a long lifespan and continue to serve the artist for many of their art projects.

Here are some important tips that one should keep in mind in their care regime for the brushes: 1. Cleaning the Brush After Use It might be tempting to leave the brushes as they are, covered in paint, after a long tiring painting session. But this should be avoided as much as possible, especially in case of acrylics. Once you’re done using a brush, clean the paint off it. Leaving the brush as it is and allowing the paint to dry out is going to call for more vigorous cleaning later on because the dried paint will become much harder with time.

2. Protect the Ferrule from Paint Ferrule is the part of the brush that connects the bristles of the brush with the handle of the brush. More often than not, the paint blob that gets on the ferrule extends right into the brush bristles. This could cause the brush hairs to spread apart and unravel, washing won’t help much here! So in order to keep the brush bristles in good shape, it’s best to keep the paint away from the ferrule.

3. The Wrong Position for Keeping Brushes It’s common to see people leaving their brushes in vertical position with the brush bristles dipped into the water. This is a wrong practice that should be avoided, especially if you own an expensive set of brushes. The pressure on the brush bristles can cause them to bend, spread and fray. The bristles could lose their original shape if the brush is left for a long time resting on the bristles in water.

4. The Right Position for Keeping Brushes The correct ways to store a brush are the ones that leave the brush’s head unperturbed. This is so because it’s important to protect the bristles of the brush from getting deformed. So you can store the brush in a vertical position with its head up, or even in a horizontal position. If you own a pack of several brushes, make sure that as you store them together no brush rests on the tips of its fellow brushes.

5. Clean Thoroughly Once in a While Water is not always enough to wash your brushes. If you don’t plan to use the brushes for a long time to come, then it would be good if you did a little more extensive cleaning than just with water. You should use a brush soap or gentle shampoo to clean the bristles, the base of the bristles and the ferrule. Make sure that there is no paint residue left on any part of the brush.

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