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The traditional method of storing your brushes, especially whilst painting, is to pop them upside down with the bristles up in a holder. You even find water pots with holes already made to stand your brushes in. The problem I find with this is that the water left in your brush soaks down through the metal ferrule and into the wooden handle, causing that easily recognised horrible brush handle paint splinter!

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Do you have the same problem with the paint on your brush handles splitting and peeling away? In the past I’ve resorted to wrapping sellotape around the handle, but it is never the same as the feel of smooth undamaged paint between your fingers. ☹️ So I got to thinking….. 🤔
Now I love to make things which solve a problem or that simply do what I want them to do. When I’m not painting or out bird watching I’m often to be found in the garage amongst my woodworking tools, hammering and creating on a slightly bigger and in a more rustic style to my fine detailed paintings!
Firstly I got my ideas for the design down on paper.

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As you can see from my photos this is a budget idea so all you need is a cheap broom handle, a block of wood and a foam tube from a paint roller. You can also use the grey foam pipe insulation, this is a little tougher to push your brushes into but does still work.

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I would suggest that if the piece of wood you use for the base is lightweight, that you may need to put something heavy over the top of it to prevent it moving when you push your brushes back into the foam, or alternatively blu-tac it to your desk to stop it moving. My base was a piece of old oak so nice and heavy and really stable.

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Should you fancy having a go at making my ‘Budget Brush Holder’ hopefully the photos here are enough for you to give it a go.

Please leave a comment and let me know how you get on. Or perhaps you have another method of preserving the life of your brushes – I would love to know what it is. 😉

Until next time, bye for now,
Paul. 🎨🖌

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Having never written a blog before, I am still finding my feet with the sorts of things to write about on here 😉  Do let me know if there is anything you would like me to chat about – I’m happy to learn!

This week saw us finally emptying the 50 bird boxes we have in a local wood, it has been a job we’ve been trying to get to for weeks months!  The boxes really need emptying before the end of January as birds start prospecting for accommodation early in the year.  The most interesting box was one that we knew a bumble bee had been in, we got to the box and couldn’t open it!!  The nest had completely filled the box and was welded to everything.  It was no longer being used so we could fortunately remove it.  Click here for some more information on bumble bee nests.

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My main painting project this week has been filming the next Patreon video tutorial. People have been asking for painted backgrounds and I also wanted to do something really cute that would hopefully capture people’s interest….. All will be ‘properly’ revealed later this month. 😉

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Over the past few weeks my partner Jo has been working hard on redesigning  my downloadable PDF’s.   The content is still exactly the same, so I’ll still remind you to get a cup of coffee or take a break, they just look a bit more snazzy and they all have the same format.  Hopefully you will like the new design and find it easy to follow and work with. 

For those new to following me, my PDFs are available through my site but they are also available as part of the $5 and above monthly subscription on Patreon and for the current monthly PDF there is an accompanying real time video available to the $10 and above level, with access to all the video back catalogue!  All in $ I’m afraid as it is an American site, but it does all the conversion stuff for you.  😀 

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My most popular post on my Facebook page this week was Toffee, an Alpaca which I had the pleasure of painting as a surprise commission.  This was a large piece, roughly A3 in size, so took some doing with my little 00 brush!  The photo doesn’t really do it justice, it was one of those need to see to appreciate pieces.  I really like working on larger projects and it is good when someone asks for this size as it forces me to put aside the time to do it!

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To finish today’s blog and in case you missed it over on Facebook:

What do race horses eat?
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Fast Food. 😁😁

On that note about food – we are hoping to get a bit of time for a nice walk and a lovely meal at a local The Old Farmhouse Kitchen this weekend, you should see the cakes there!! 🍨🍰🥧

So until next time, keep those brushes wet,

Paul

PS – Don’t forget to leave me a comment so I know you’ve been here. 😉