8 Tips on Cleaning & Maintaining Your Brushes

 

 

Fundamental Rules to maintaining and extending the lifespan of your brushes.

 

 

 

1. Water-soluble colours should be washed out with water.

2. Acrylic colour, as long as it is wet, should be washed out with water. When dried up it can only be dissolved with special cleaning agents.

3. Oil colours should be wiped off thoroughly but gently with a piece of cloth, where it is then appropriately cleaned with a special cleaner.

4. Hairs, bristles and synthetic fibres should be cleaned with a special brush soaps or cleaners, that cleans and maintains the brush head on the basis of vegetable oils, and warm water until the soap begins to produce white lather. Do not use strongly fat removing soaps! Especially natural hair tends to break if they are missing their protecting fat contents. By that you elevate the life as well as the suppleness of your brushes.

5. To wash out the brush, rub the hair body of the brush carefully and remove the remains of pigment that chiefly stick to the edge of the ferrule.

6. Afterwards wipe the brush with a fine piece of cloth and bring it to its original shape. Artists call this procedure “dressing”.

 

7. A useful tip is to put some hair conditioner to restore the hair's oils (just like on real hair). Put it on and rinse it off after 5-8 mins. Leaving the conditioner on too long will eat away at the hair, just like on human hair. This can be done not only on natural hair brushes to prevent the hairs from splitting, it's useful also on the higher end synthetic brushes.

 

 

8. Let the brush air dry completely in a cool dry place before you use it again. Don’t put it on the radiator to dry. There the hair will dry too quickly, the handle will shrink, and the brush head will come loose.