How Do You Get Your Sta-Wet Palette Paper So Clean?
"I reuse my palette paper quite a bit and how do you make sure it is clean enough to reuse?"
Before I answer that question, let me take a step back. Often times artists who are just getting started with Acrylics ask me 'How do you keep your paint wet? My Acrylics dry out so easily!' It's a fabulous question. Acrylics do dry much faster than oils and it's an age-old problem us Acrylic artists have to deal with. But us Acrylic artists also have a secret weapon to fight that.
It's called the Masterson Sta-Wet Palette. You can learn more about the palette HERE but long story short it's a palette with a wet sponge in it. You put the palette paper on top of the sponge. You mix your paints on top of the paper and voila - your paint stays wet forever! Now let's answer the original question.
"I reuse my palette paper quite a bit and how do you make sure it is clean enough to reuse?"
I can substitute different things for the sponge but I have never substituted anything for the paper. I have tried a few different things. I tried parchment paper but it didn’t work. I do reuse my paper quite a bit.
For cleaning my paper I grab a paper towel and if there is a lot of paint on there I wipe it up with my paper towel. Then I spray it with my spray bottle and I’ll wipe it off with another paper towel. I might do that two or three times. It usually gets clean enough that I can put paint on there and it doesn’t mix or get dirty.
I try to change out my water regularly in the sponge and in the paper because there is a problem with mildew and mold. So I put in a couple drops of hydrogen peroxide because hydrogen peroxide will kill the mold and the smell that will build up in there. That mold and mildew will make the paper and sponge breakdown.
So if you want to keep that stuff looking good and working well, you have to make sure that it doesn't get mold because the minute it gets that mildew and black stuff growing in there it will tend to break the sponge down. And the paper.
I probably reuse that paper five or six times. It just depends on how good the paper looks. I've seen a lot of people who don't put enough water in the sponge, and the paper gets dried out and it curls up.
You can buy the Masterson Sta-Wet Palette by clicking HERE and you can buy replacement palette paper HERE
You can also read more about this Sta-Wet Palette by clicking here. It's an incredible tool that TOTALLY changes the way Acrylic artists are painting.
