Sarah Davies
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How to make a D.I.Y. stay wet palette

11/8/2016

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Stay wet palettes are a fantastic time-saving invention, but they can be quite expensive to buy and often require additional purchases of custom fit paper. I used to use plastic palettes but got sick of scrubbing them, so for the past few years I've mostly used tear-off disposable palette pads made from grease-proof paper. It's frustrating though when I have to throw away paint that has dried up over night, even though a painting is still in progress. So I decided a while ago to try making my own stay wet palette, and it worked brilliantly. I've been amazed at how long I've been able to keep a palette going. My acrylics stay wet and usable, with the exception of those in very thin layers which sometimes still dry up. It's been a great addition to my tool kit, is saving money as my paints are lasting longer, and means that I can continue with a painting without having to remix colours. As this is such a useful tool for artists, I thought I'd share how to make your own DIY stay wet palette.
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Here is the first stay wet palette I made. It works well, but is a bit small.
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I'm using a larger shallow square food storage container bought at Coles. Line with paper towels. I've overlapped four.
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Add a layer of baking or grease-proof paper.
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Spray with water. Spray enough to dampen thoroughly, but not enough that there is liquid swishing about.
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Sometimes the baking paper curls up at the edges, so I use sewing pins to pin the corners of the baking paper to the wet kitchen paper.
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...like this
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Add paint.
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Keep the lid on between uses.
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When I open up the palette after not using it for a while I give the paint a spray with unlocking formula. This is made specifically for Atelier acrylics. I use a few different brands in addition to Atelier, but I've not found any adverse effect on other brands of paint.
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Happy painting!
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If you don't use Atelier, spritzing with water might be helpful. Even without spraying, the paint stays usable far longer than on a normal open palette. I've had the same palette going for weeks.
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