Cleaning a Mineral Spirits Cup

Every so often, you’ll notice that your brushes aren’t rinsing in your mineral spirits cup as well as they used to. Usually this means the bottom of your cup is full of sediment and is due to be cleaned out. Here’s a helpful tip to show you how to go about this little studio chore.

I like to start out by putting some paper towels in the cup and waiting a while so that they can soak up any extra mineral spirits.

Once the paper towels have soaked everything up, I get to work digging out all of the sediment with my palette knife. Look at that thick sediment with all sorts of different pigments, mediums, and varnish in it.

After I’ve gotten out as much out as I can, I’ll give it a quick wipe with a paper towel and put the grate back in. Since mineral spirits are highly flammable, be sure to put all of your dirty paper towels in a fire safe can and dispose of them properly.

Now that my cup is clean, it’s ready to fill up with mineral spirits and will rinse my brushes much more efficiently!

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One Response to “Cleaning a Mineral Spirits Cup”

  1. Brenda Earhart

    New email; delete old Gmail