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Hints and tips to care for your brushes
General rules for brush care:
- Do not leave your brushes resting in water. The bristles will bend
and not straighten out. Water will also soften the glue holding the
bristles in place.
- You should always store your brushes upright to maintain their shape.
Never store or stand your brushes on their hair or bristles.
- Clean your brushes immediately after each use, especially at the
ferrule, as a deposit of hardened color at this point will cause the
brush head to lose its' shape. Don't allow the color to dry in the brush.
Lay brushes flat on a towel to dry. Store upright when dry.
- Work a cleanser, such as dish soap or hand soap into the interior
of the brush. Murphy's oil soap works very well also. Clean several
times until you no longer see color on a white paper towel.
- Always wash in cool or luke warm water. Never wash brushes in HOT
water. Hot water will distort the bristles but will also, over time,
dissolve the glue holding them together.
THE ROUND BRUSH
- Load your brush with color. Press down just about flat and pull towards
the center. As you pull towards the center start to twist very slightly
and pull up and off the paper. If you pull up and off the paper too
quickly you won't get a good stroke. If you're doing a flower, your
starting point for petals will be at the outside pulling all the petals in to the center.
If you are doing a leaf on a stem, you will also be starting at the
end of the leaf and pulling in to meet the stem.
- The round brush can also be used for shading. Wetting your brush,
and dabbing once on a paper towel so you still have some water in your
brush. Slide one side of the brush through the edge of a color then
apply by sliding along the inside edge of any design.
THE SQUARE SHADER BRUSH
- Some strokes you can do with the square edged brush. Wet and dab
off excess water and dip a corner of the brush into a light color. Dip
the other corner of the brush in a darker shade. Press down flat with
both colors on the brush and pull forward and do a half twist landing
on the tip of the brush. There needs to be enough water in your brush
to make this flow nicely. Keep in mind using the square brush for corner
load shading is better with acrylics than glazes, especially if you're
going over another color. The harsh edges can sometimes pull the glaze
beneath it. Its best to shade with the round brushes when working with
glazes.
THE LINER BRUSH
- To do the strokes with the liner brush, load the brush and apply
lightly. The length of this brush allows you to make a longer stroke
before reloading.
THE DETAIL BRUSH
- The detail brush is better than the liner if you want more control.
Lettering, small swirls, eyes and small flowers with a detail brush
are just a matter of having a steady hand. A tip to help keep your hand
steady would be to support your hand by touching down with your pinky
finger.
TROUBLESHOOTING TIP:
- If pieces are coming out streaky and uneven, especially large platters
or plates it could just be light application. However, a more common
cause is using the wrong type of brush to apply the glaze. Most people
believe that by using the large square shader brush that they will get
a wider coverage. The downfall in doing this is that the square brush
has a harsh edge that can cause streaking. A better choice for
overall coverage or coverage of large areas is a large round brush,
such as the #12 Round in Gare's ColorStix line or the 1 1/4" Millennium
Brush. They don't have the harsh edge and are still large when spread
out. Make sure the brush is fully loaded, soaked with glaze. Apply smoothly
and evenly. Do keep the layers somewhat consistent and brush out any
ridges so that it has a smooth looking surface.
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