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crusty caps

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neil rose

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Posted
I've not picked up my oils this year, mainly due to having an' annus horribilis' in many ways. Dabbled with the watercolours on occasion, but the oils sat unloved except for a quick sketch on a club painting day last summer. I have just finished removing all the tube caps, with pliers, & picking all the hardened paint out of the threads with a craft knife. I even put a smear of petroleum jelly on the threads for future ease of removal. " How the winter nights must fly by" you may be thinking. On a positive note , I am now morally uplifted & ready for an "annus mirabilis" next year & actually use the stuff. I noticed some tubes are almost vintage, but are still perfect , if you can get the paint out...

Sylvia Evans

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Posted
Crusty caps can be a problem .....hopefully we will both have a better year next year.... and everyone else..... watch out for crusty caps ...😉

Peter Davison

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Posted
I also suffer from crusty caps...among other things! But I'm prepared to face life and crusty caps for another year.

Michael Robinson

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Posted
So funny Marjorie 😄
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Well you can avoid crusty caps - actually, because I have hair that's very hard to control, I use hairspray: the inside of my cap and hats is not fit for decent people to look upon - when it comes to paint tubes by wiping the nozzle/thread after each use. And of course, we ALL do that: don't we? One word of advice to all crusties - sometimes you've little option other than to use pliers to remove a cap, but if you've got to do that, do warm the cap first, in very hot water. 'Cause if you don't, and the tube is perhaps getting a bit old, you run the risk of ripping it in half and ending up with a handful of wet, sticky paint. That would be bad enough if it was watercolour, but imagine if you will my unhappy experience with a quite large tube of Mars Orange oil paint.... paint over both hands, so of course it got everywhere it shouldn't. I have a gift for this sort of thing. Sitting down on a wet palette was my other trick - that was oil, too.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I've had unpleasant experiences with Prussian Blue too, yes: and for some reason or other, it smells pretty rank .... and is virtually impossible to get out of cloth once it's nicely settled in. We all have our horror stories. Doubtless I've regaled you before with the one about the rat ( Ralph, it was: The Great Ralph (TM) All Rights Reserved) who waddled over the palette I'd stupidly laid on the floor and got paint over each paw, which he then trod all over the carpet.... Question - do you wash the rat's paws first, and then clean the carpet, or clean the carpet before the stain sets and then wash the rat's paws....? These are truly deep considerations, rendering so much of human effort truly trivial by comparison....