Brush Care

A note on brush care:

Do not wash brushes aggressively using the palm of your hand, or warm or hot water.  The initial soak is brief and water should not be warmer than your body temperature.  Cold water is fine.  

After painting (or before changing colors), swish the brushes in plenty of cool water.  When you are done painting and swishing, pat once or twice on a clean towel, no dragging or pulling or wringing or aggressive handling of the brush.  Wipe the handle dry.  Reshape the brush to a point with just your fingertip.  If you have a rack, allow the brush to hang dry to keep water out of the handle and delay cracking.    

Never store brushes tip side up and wet unless it is sitting on the brush rest and full of ink, in which case you have no choice unless you want a mess.  Storing a wet brush or brush roll with bristles in the air will cause the bamboo to split earlier.  When transporting your brushes, lay they flat in a bag.  Don't stand the roll up in your bag.  Ideally, go home and hang them up on a rack, but you can just leave them to dry flat in the roll if you don't have a rack.  A gentle incline is nice, but that's enough to make them all fall out of the roll.  

If your bamboo splits, it's just moving along in its life cycle.  I have seen famous artists with split bamboo handles painting beautifully, the brush is not done until it's much older.  When a brush no longer comes to a paint when wet, it is entering the punk rock stage in its life cycle, turning it into a grass brush.  That means it's time to replace the old brush, but keep the one that is getting old and use it for techniques which are harder on the brush, such as splaying the bristles and making stripes or grass.

Occasionally the orchid bamboo brushes or any brush with thread twisted around it in a groove will have the thread come loose.  Do not remove the thread, it is there to protect your bamboo from cracking.  Simply stop painting if you can, let it dry on the brush rack overnight, and then drag the end of the thread over a wand of clear nail polish just like you would to apply eyelash glue.  Then take your thumb and smooth the thread back down into the grove.  In about 10 minutes you can paint again.  This fix has worked well for me.  If you do not like that, I also carry a set of orchid bamboo brushes with plastic ferrules, but they are sold as a set.  It is hard to buy orchid bamboo brushes singly.

Don't load the brush all the way to the top where it meets the handle with paint.  This will cause the brush to get ink or paint at that part, where it is hard to rinse.  If a brush is no longer coming to a point, gently swishing it in a cup of water with a few drops of baby shampoo or human shampoo may help, or massage a drop of soap into the bristles with your fingertips.  Do not use the brush soaps designed for brushes such as Masters or pink soap or even Castille soap.  Just a human shampoo, if ever.  How nice is it, to never have to use soap?  Pretty great, and it makes it easy for plein air, if you save some water for a final swish.