Cleaning your Brayers

Are you someone who likes to clean all equipment as you go...or does leaving a brayer covered in paint not bother you?

I have to say there is something rather satisfying about using the nice smooth black surface of my brayer in fresh paint on a gel plate...however it is actually a rare sight for me!

More often than not I will roll off any excess paint from the brayer onto a sheet of paper as I am printing to get rid off the excess paint, naturally this will inevitably leave some residue paint on the brayer and consequently will build up in layers. The roll off paper is always useful as it invariably gets used for a layer in printing for something else.

Paint often builds up between the roller and the guard which in extreme cases can stop the brayer from turning and will skid across a gel plate instead. Paint is also likely to gather on the ends of the brayer forming a little skin...

You can take time to peel this off which in turn helps to peel the surface layer, however, it can often rip into the layer left on the roller leaving little bits of uneven paint areas giving you an uneven surface with a 'texture' on the brayer...is this a problem? No it isn't...if you like random texture added to your surface.

So how did I get all my rollers so clean without taking forever to do so? You may have watched YouTube video's with brayers being cleaned with Murphy's oil soap...well I used DAZ washing powder...it did the same job! No harm to the rubber surface. I do wonder whether my "method wood floor cleaner" would do a similar job like Murphy's oil soap, it is a nourishing wood soap after all...I will try that next time and let you know how I get on...

I let the brayers soak over night in warm water with a cup of Daz..the next morning I gently rubbed the paint surface and peeled the paint layers off. TAH DAAAAH I'm all ready for all the gel plate classes I have just listed...

USE COUPON CODE CBNL-0725-5GPP for £5 off a gel printing class

or

USE COUPON CODE CBNL-0725-5GPC for £5 off a gel print collagraph class