How to Properly Clean and Care for your brushes
Cleaning your brushes properly after each use is essential to prolong the life of your brushes. Here is our step-by-step guide to brush maintenance.
It is recommended to clean all artist brushes with a good artist brush cleaner, these have been formulated and developed to clean the brush thoroughly and recondition the hair without any residue (important for watercolour). They are easily available in liquid, cream, or soap formulations.
All brushes need to be cleaned before storing.
- Clean as much pigment off the brush hair by swilling in clean water.
- Using a good artist brush cleaner, coat brush hair with soap and use the palm of your hand to agitate the brush ensuring that you get right up to the ferrule to prevent any build-up of pigment residue
- Rinse in cold water
You will be surprised how much more pigment is still in the brush hair even though it can appear clean. All pigment should be removed as the paint residue can build up in the ferrule which is one of the reasons the brushes become disfigured.
Do not submerge the whole brush in water, only submerge the hair and/or ferrule, not the handle. Try to keep handles dry, to prevent them from loosening and cracking. When you dip the head into water try to keep the water level below the crimping and only wet the ferrule - Test on a clean piece of kitchen roll whether there is still any colour left on your brush.
- Repeat the process with an Artist brush cleaner and warm water if required.
- Remove as much moisture as possible with kitchen roll and reshape before storing.
A quick flick of the brush reshapes the brush's hair
After cleaning, a brush should be hung upside down or laid flat to dry. If the brush dries standing up, the moisture will drain towards the ferrule and handle and weaken the epoxy glue holding the hair in place and can be absorbed into the handle causing the paint to crack.
Once dry, brushes can be stored with bristles upright in a pot, in a brush case or brush roll to prevent the hair from becoming misshapen when not being used.
