A Great DIY Hack for Preserving an Essential Clay Tool How to Keep Your Wax Brushes Soft and Ready for Use Linda Arbuckle

How many times have you ruined a perfectly good paintbrush by forgetting to clean it after waxing pots? If you are as forgetful as I am, you’ll want to pay attention to this post!

In this excerpt from the Ceramics Monthly archive, Linda Arbuckle shares the great DIY hack she came up with to preserve those bristles and keep her wax brush soft and ready to go at a moment's notice! She even shares how she adapted this brush holder for travel! - Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

My majolica decoration methods require a lot of waxing. Since I’m  using the wax frequently, I prefer to leave my wax brush suspended in water so it doesn’t dry out. I’ve used spring clothespins and narrow-necked containers for travel, but really an aluminum watercolor brush washer (available at most craft supply stores) is the best. I put a recycled plastic jar in the metal holder (ditch the perforated tray), and it works great for holding wax brushes suspended, so you don’t get a bent brush tip.

Over time, storing the brushes in water may loosen the glue that holds the bristles in the brush, and the clump of hair comes out of the handle (especially on bamboo brushes). If this happens, I gently wash off any debris from the wax, dry the parts, and use carpenter’s glue to fix the bristles back in the handle.

One more tip—if you do get dried wax in your brush, a laundry de-greaser (I use Shout®) can be used to gently shampoo the bristles and will take most of the wax out.

**First published in 2016.