Painter's Tip: How to Clean a Brayer the Easy Way

If you use a rubber brayer with acrylics, you know how quickly layers of paint can build up on it. You can minimize clean-up by wiping it with a wet paper towel in between your applications of colors. Nevertheless, a brayer still requires a thorough cleaning once your painting session is over.

If you dislike having to scrub your brayer to get it clean, I'll let you in on a little secret: there's a much easier, painless way to do it. Assuming your brayer is no wider than 4 inches, here's what you'll need:

A deep bowl, such as a cereal bowl
Murphy Oil Soap
Water

Fill the bowl with enough warm water to cover the roller on the brayer. Add a tablespoon or two of Murphy Oil Soap to the water and swish to mix. Place your brayer in the water with the framework resting on the bottom of the bowl and the roller facing up. Do not allow the rubber roller to touch  the bottom or the sides of the bowl. (You may have to try a few different bowls to find one that's just the right size.)

Let the brayer sit in the water overnight. The next morning, the Murphy Oil Soap will have worked its magic. A few swipes with a paper towel and any paint remaining on the roller will come right off.

The brayers I use have plastic handles so leaving them in water doesn't harm them. If your brayer has a wood handle I don't recommend using this method because water could damage it.

FYI: When it's not in use, always store your brayer with the roller facing up. If you store it with the roller facing down, over time it will develop a flat spot that will make rolling paint on smoothly impossible.

 ©2016 Lynn Edwards

A Quick Tip for Cleaning Your Brushes

If you paint with acrylics, you know how hard it is to revive a nylon- or synthetic-bristle brush that was allowed to dry with paint still in the bristles. So it's important to clean your brushes thoroughly as soon as your painting session is finished. Here's a little secret: it's not necessary to use those pricey brush cleaners you see advertised in art supply catalogs. Instead, use Murphy Oil Soap, available at any grocery store. It costs a fraction of the price of those spendy cleaners, and a bottle of it will last for years.

Not only does this product do an excellent job at removing paint from the brush, it conditions the bristles at the same time. I've been using it to clean my brushes ever since I started painting. As a result I have brushes that still perform beautifully -- and look like new -- even now, 13 years after I bought them. They're my trusty workhorses; I paint with them all the time.

But wait! There's more! You can use Murphy Oil Soap to reclaim a dried out brush as well! (Obviously, the sooner you address the problem, the better. The longer you wait, the more difficult the job becomes.) Just suspend the brush over a small jar or other container filled with Murphy Oil Soap with the bristles fully submerged in the soap. It may take days of dangling in the soap for the bristles to become supple again, depending on the size of the brush and how much paint is on it. But eventually they'll soften enough to where you can work the paint particles out and rinse them away.

This rescue technique also works on house painting brushes caked with dried on latex paint. It just calls for a bigger container and a lot more Murphys.

©2014 Lynn Edwards