Stipple Brushes Question

[sparklinbecks]

How does everyone clean their stipple brushes? I am doing a scrapbook right now that has one main theme that needs the stipple brushes in 6 or 7 colors and I dont want anything to get a muddied look. Plus I want to keep them clean looking. Do you think a TEENIE amount of bleach in a glass of water would hurt them? And I would dry them off super well before putting it into my stamp pad....

What is everyone's systems?

TIA!

[StampingSpud]

I have a stipple brush and I smoosh it gently down into the stampin' scrub with a little of the stampin mist sprayed on it. Works well enough for me, but I'd like to read the other suggestions and try those too.

[stampin_melissa]

This probably won't help, but I bought enough stipple brushes for general color groups, like dark blues and greens, yellows, etc.

Before I bought more, I have gently rinsed them in water, then gently sweezed the water out.

Melissa

[Happy Heart]

You can buy brush cleaner wherever they sell stencilling supplies. It comes in a little, round plastic container. You just wet the brush and swirl it around on the cleaner then rinse. It not only cleans your brushes, it conditions them.

[buttons2]

I just swirl mine around on a papertowel until there's no more color. Once in a great while, I'll gently wash it with hand soap then dry as much as I can.

[Boss]

I agree with Melissa that it is best to have a brush for each color group - then you never have to wash them I used to wash them until I discovered they had to dry completely before they could be used again (bristles were too soft when damp). I was able to spluge with multiple brushes after a friend attended a ceramics show and purchased a bundle of dozen from one of the vendors --- they were about $1 a piece and were the exact same brushes we use from SU. You might want to check around and see if you can find some place offering the brushes inexpensively....just a suggestion
Happy stippling!

[JanTInk]

Ack! Don't use bleach! The stipple brushes are made out of animal hair and bleach eats animal hair...you might not see an immediate impact, but trust me, at some point you won't have stipple brushes, you'll have stubble brushes!

[geojlc]

If they're animal hair, you don't want to leave them sitting in water either. That ruins bristle...

[MSBetsyZ]

One thing I did which has been VERY helpful is to have one brush dedicated to yellow only. I even painted the handle bright glossy yellow to avoid oopses. Otherwise I have brushes for each color family...

Betsy

[wdstamper]

It's best to clean your brushes with water and you can even use a little mild dish detergent and then rinse until it comes clean. Lay flat to dry on a paper towel so that water does not get stuck in the ferrule because this will ruin your brush. Just another tip!