Brush care.

To drain water from brushes while painting, try using a piece of bisque-fired clay. This saves blotting onto a paper towel. You can also purchase small sponges, dampen them, and use them to clean the brushes while painting. You may want to place a drop of liquid detergent on the sponge, and after cleaning the brushes the sponge can be used to clean the table.

For brush storage, use unglazed terra-cotta flowerpots. In the garden section of your favorite house and garden store, select a rectangle wooden planter and then find three of the taller, slimmer, terra-cotta pots to sit inside the planter. You can label where the brushes are to be stored on the outside of the wooden planter.

If you allow wet brushes to dry vertically, the brush will be damaged. This is because the moisture loosens the glue holding the brush together. The best way to store brushes as they are drying for the next day of classes is to lay them flat (horizontal) onto a cloth towel. The next day they can be collected and stored upright into the terra-cotta containers for use.

Another method of draining and storing brushes at the end of the school day is to lay the brushes in a heavy-duty plastic painting tray (the ones we all use when painting walls with a roller). I place the hair of the brush over the part where the paint is poured. With appropriate care, your brushes will last longer and your budget will go further.