Care and Maintenance

This follows on from a recent post about the 5th benefit of undercoating, and also from “The Beastly Lion of Wolsey Towers” – episode #1, in which you saw how to undercoat a large piece of glass.

Today, cleaning your badger.

This is important because, dirty, your badger will wreck your matts and shadows.

Clean, it will serve you wonderfully for life.

So if your matts and shadows aren’t working, sure: it might be you’re being heavy-handed. All the same, your badger just might need a simple clean.

How to clean your badger quickly

The quick way to clean your badger blender is – just remember this gives off dust – strike its tips against the leg of your work-bench:

A quick way to clean your badger blender

You strike its tips as often as needed. Some loose dirt will fly into the air; the rest will be transferred to your work-bench leg. But, wherever else it goes, it will leave your brush.

How to clean your badger thoroughly

Sometimes though you’ll also need to wash your blender.

The reason is, if you mix gum Arabic in your glass paint, in time your blender’s tips will clog up with tiny drops of hardened glass paint.

“In time …” – it doesn’t happen often.

But when it does, this is what you do. You wash your blender’s tips – important: just the tips – under running water. This dissolves the glue and loosens stubborn dirt.

Next, you dry it, because a wet badger is no good for blending. So you roll its shaft between the palms of your hands. Back and forth, back and forth you roll it, so the hairs spin out almost horizontally:

How to dry your badger blender – roll its shaft between your hands like this …

Finally, for good measure, just as you did for the quick clean, you can also strike its tips back and forth against your work-bench leg.

Before you use it, check it’s dry.

If it isn’t, roll it back forth again.

Even when you think it’s dry, it’s still a good idea to test it on your light-box first.

Water vs. Oil

You keep this badger blender for glass paint mixed with water and gum Arabic.

For glass paint mixed with oil or glycol, a small, round-headed badger is what you use. So, if you’re cleaning oil, rinse your brush with gentle soap, then use some oil of Lavender to condition the hairs. If glycol, just rinse with water.

The Beastly Lion of Wolsey Towers

Watch episode #1 right here.

Remember, episodes #1-#3 are for everyone. After that, you need the password which is just for glass painters who are signed up to get our newsletter. Just scroll up and see the red writing on your right.