Homemade brush holder

I just finished this brush holder. It's pretty but its usefulness remains to be seen. Found the fabric last year at Walmart and knew I would find something to make out of it. I love the colors!

How do you all transport your brushes? The last time I travelled with mine, one dried at an odd angle. Luckily it wasn't one of my nicer ones.
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My mom made me a brush roll for my make-up brushes while I was in make-up school... it is super-sized and a double layer... two rows of pockets with flaps on top and on the ends... still using it for the expensive make-up brushes.

For face painting brushes I just put them in the compartment in my toolboxes' organizer drawer... no special container or anything.

Something like yours Cassandra I have for my special effects brushes. My makeup brushes are in a big tube, and my facepainting/bodypaint brushes are to two smaller. My extra facepainting brushes (for courses and when having others with me on jobs) are also in one of these rolled ones. My brushes for temporary tattoos just stand in a glass in the studio, and when bringing them, they are just put in the kit. (plus my extra brushes that are in a big flowerpot... ) I have a thing for brushes *lol*

Lone Wolf is a brush tart!!!!!!!!!!

I roll mine in a thick black cloth placemat (really stiff and easy to wash) that goes into a black rectangular faux suede Estee Lauder makeup pouch (it is really long).

It's okay though....I just got made fun of for how many I had a few gigs ago. I have like 25 I like to take. Each one does a certain thing best and I have to have one dedicated black and white if nothing else. Then there is my chisel, deerfoot/filbert, a bunch of diff size rounds, a smush brush for clouds and sea foam waves, thich one for eye shadow,script for stars and lettering, a smoothie for dry powders, a brush blush for the pink princess cheeks, a dotter wand, my butterfly wing brush, my new split cake brushes 10 and 12 .... I admire the 3 brush people, but I can't do it!!!!

I am a nut about not putting my brushes straight up and down. It grosses me out to think what drips into the ferrel and grows with paint residue, dirty water, etc......

I'm brush crazy also. I always take tons of brushes to any event I do. I just feel more comfortable that way. I did this when I took my Mark Reid class and he gave it the eye!

He wanted us to only use one brush I believe, but I sneakily made sure I had at least three! And that was asking a lot... I don't even know how many I take normally, but there are bunches. I usually dedicate one brush per color. I hate how long it takes to rinse a brush out to switch to a different color.

I don't like rinsing brushes out a lot since it makes the water turn brown. Then I don't feel like putting the brush in my white and yellow. If I use the rinse method, I thought about having one water for white and yellow, and another water for everything else.

On the other hand, when I don't rinse brushes, they harden after sitting a while and take a few moments to reactivate. I've noticed after not rinsing that the brush gets an accumulation of paint in the bristles and isn't shaped as nicely. The paint left inside makes it fatter and gloppy and I end up washing it out anyway.

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to work the brushes/water dilemma. I have so many brushes that I have to try to narrow it down else I'll end up having to get a wheeled cart just for brushes.

WyndyO - if you don't have your brushes straight up as you work, how do you do it?

I have a lot of brushes as I have to wash and sanitize them between people... I keep the clean ones in a small heavy acrylic vase, and once they are "in use" they sit in the holes on my water tub to dry out. The water tub is the three compartment one that you can find in art and craft stores... has ridges in the bottom of one compartment, holes around the rim for brushes, etc. It is square and usually beige in colour (as you can see in the photo.)

Shannon - Do you use the three compartments for separate rinsing of white and other colors?

I noticed you have a bar of soap right there too. Do you use it as you work?

I don't have a lot of different kind of brushes when out facepainting. I do like Sherry and have different brushes for different colours. I have a number 1 and 6 (diamond arcade, practical, because they bristles don't touch even when standing close) each for red/orange, yellow, green, blue/purple, black, white, grey/silver and brown. Plus a big nr 8 (normal sable for watercolours) for red/orange/red, blue/green, black, white and brown. A eyeliner brush for line work. Then a wisp brush for butterflies, threes and so. A weird one just for all the questions it get and a body brush, so I know I will bring it. I colour code them with a stripe of nail polish near the bristles. Works great!

cassandra wrote:Shannon - Do you use the three compartments for separate rinsing of white and other colors?

I noticed you have a bar of soap right there too. Do you use it as you work?

I am required to clean and sanitized my brushes after EACH PERSON. I wipe off the excess paint on a wipe or tissue, dip in the first (ridged) compartment, rub on the soap (Ivory BTW) then work it on the ridged in the bottom to get the paint out, then rinse in #2 compartment, then again in #3... then they are dipped and swished in 70% isoproply alcohol (in the white round container) then stood to airdry in the hole around the tub. When they are dry I can use them again.

I change my water as soon as the first compartment starts to turn into coffee water. I dump it into the used sponge bucket.

Why not just use a spray bottle with water for activating the paints? Then it will never be mixed up with the rinse water. I have a bowl for rinsing that stands in a drawer with other mixed items. Since it is shorter than the sides of the drawer, the rinse water - and it mixed colours - are harder to see. After I rinse, I wipe the brushes in a black washcloth - here the coloured stripes doesn't look so bad - to take excess paint and water away.

I just got that little grayish brush holder that you see in Shannon's pic. It was only $2 at Micheal's. What a find. It has three seperate water resoviors. I found the holes didn't work so well with all the brushes I wanted to use. But, I am trying to cut down on the brushes I use so it works towards my end.

I use the Art Bin from Dicks to house my brushes. A bit high brow, but works with what i am doing right now.

-Metina

It's really helpful to see how other people work. I will eventually find what works for me with the whole brush/water thing by trying it the various ways described above.

It sounds as if those of you who use the roll up type carriers don't have a problem with your bristles drying bent. That was a concern since some of the brushes aren't cheap and I read somewhere that once they get bent, it's hard to get them back into shape.

If they get bend, sometimes it helps pouring hot/boiling water over them.

Speaking of: I'm doing an event where I need to bring extra facepainters, and I find that hard. (not to find somebody, but to find somebody good). One of the one I found is still in makeup school, but I have seen her work, and she seem to have talent. She asked if she could come and have airbrush demonstrated - since she will be doing that as well - and just see the designs being painted (there is only three designs). Ended up spending 8 hours! The airbrush did not take long, but really basic stuff - like painting a teatrop i one stroke - they had not learned. But back to the point: the thing that really surprised me was that they had been told that brushes should be dried with the bristles down! So all her brushes was bend more or less out of shape. I'm thinking about asking the school if they want another teacher for facepainting ;-)