Looking After Your School Paints:
School paints that are designed for use with children can easily
become contaminated with bacteria or mould, this also can lead to a very strong
sickening odour.
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Some school paint I found for sale in a shop that was contaminated. The paint is seperated in the bottle. |
School Paint is very different to crayons and pencils as
“all children’s liquid paint is an alive product” until it dries on your
paper. No matter what brand type or
colour it will need some care to prolong its workable life.
Just like canned food in the supermarket a preservative is
added to a paint formulation to keep the paint in top condition. As this type of paint often contains
organic materials that can decay if not stored properly or if stored for a long
period of time.
School paints differ from house paint as it is used once for
one project but using School Paints we are using the same paint day after day
and again and again. Extra care is
needed to keep your products in good condition.
Here are some tips to help you store paint safely and keep
it usable for as long as possible:
Don’t pour used paint
back into the bottle:
Paint can easily get contaminated by dirty brushes, pots and
surfaces. Do not return the unused paint
to the original container this can contaminate the remaining paint.
Pour paint into
painting trays:
Avoid painting directly from the original bottle. Even
stirring the paint with a stick can contaminate it. Pour into trays only the
amount of paint you will need for that day's activity. This will keep you main
bottle of paint separate from anything children have been using.
Oldest First:
Use up the oldest paint bottles first. Some schools mark a date on the bottle when you first open it.
Use up the oldest paint bottles first. Some schools mark a date on the bottle when you first open it.
Clean your brushes:
Dirty brushes can easily contaminate paint. Clean your
brushes after use. Brushes can be soaked
overnight or let them rest in very hot water.
We often boil a jug to let the brushes sit the hot water for a
while. This is a good thing to do if you
have been painting with leaves or anything from outdoors that could hold
bacteria in the brush hair.
Keeping very old
paint colours:
If you have some half used colours that you don’t paint with
very often you can pour these into a smaller “clean” air tight container. This reduces the head space of air in the
bottle and helps prolong the paints life.
It is important to make sure the
container is clean.
Storing Paint:
Keep paint stored in its original container in a cool, dry
place out of direct sunlight.
Help:
If you have any questions on paints and storage please use
the comments below
I hope this was helpful
Share and enjoy
Tony Parker
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Thanks this was helpful.
ReplyDeleteJoyce G.
Thanks
DeleteThanks, I have had paint go bad like this before a few times but never knew why..... Tony, could you blog more about this? Thx Jude
ReplyDeleteSure, thanks Jude. Pleased it was helpful. Tony
DeleteHey Jude... I had the same thing happening here. It was a whole bunch of colours and more than one brand... it really did not smell nice. Another thing. Why do some paints smell of strong chemicals? I have Crayola here and it smells like a car wash wax... very strong. Deb
ReplyDeleteHi Deb,
DeleteIt doesn’t take much to allow school paints get contaminated and across a lot of colours. I will get more into this kind of thing in another blog. But the smell you mentioned can be strong from brand to brand and this can be an issue with larger size bottles and in smaller classes. School paints designed for use with young children should really have a low odour or even a no odour to them at all. It makes art in the class unpleasant to not mention any health risks there might be.
By the way I loved the “hey Jude” Thanks Tony