There’s nothing more annoying than getting new paint supplies and on day one, trying to figure out how to stop paint from beading on a plastic palette. You know, the water and pigment bead into tiny little balls. Have you experienced this?
A few years ago, I was researching this problem because I would have to deal with it for all of my in-person workshops and retreats. Each class would have 20+ students with all their new shiny supplies and this irritating problem would come up. Can you just keep working on it and wait for the coating to wear off? Sure. I also read about artists taking a wire scrubber and scraping the coating off, or to burn it off, etc. All of these methods seemed either too aggressive or very toxic (don’t burn plastic!).
Thankfully there’s a simple and nondestructive way to prevent this from happening. It’s something one of my followers shared with me years ago!
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How to Stop Paint From Beading on a Plastic Palette
Tools You’ll Need
All you’ll need for this is a glue stick and a paper towel! Yep. That’s it!! Were you expecting more? Okay, don't forget paint for afterwards to test it out.
Step One: Glue It UP!
Take your glue stick and rub it all over the mixing wells in your palette. Evenly coat the surface of the palette where you’ll be mixing colors (not the small dishes) with your sticky glue stick. This will create a nice sticky surface to paint on, but you don’t want to leave it just yet…
Step Two: Rub It IN!
Grab your paper towel and rub the glue into the palette. This isn’t rocket science people, it’s very simple. Just rub it in so there’s not tons of sticky, gooey stuff left on the surface, just a thin layer of glue rubbed into the palette.
Voilà!!
Now paint away!! Yes, that’s it!! The most simple and effective way to stop paint from beading on a plastic palette is really that easy.
Have you tried this yourself? Leave a comment below and let me know how it went for you!
Sounds easy enough, I’ll try it. Wondering if using a thin piece of emery board would work on removing some of the glossy finish to prevent this.
That might also be interesting to experiment with!
Well, that WAS easy. I love a good tip and this one was definitely that. Thank you!
Lori
🙌🏼
That worked like a dream thank you so much
My question is: does the remaining glue after rubbing with the paper towel, affect your paint or brushes. It seems like you could be contaminating your paint or brush??
The majority of is rubbed off and I know it’s worked for some! I haven’t had to do it since I use it often enough and the finish comes off. But you could try scruffing it with one of the other techniques instead if you prefer!
What kind of glue stick – Elmers? At Walgreens? Or is there a special kind of glue stick to use?
Just a regular old stick should do it!
I tried it twice and it didn’t work. I think because the glue is kind of a dry, sticky glue, the paper towels started coming apart and wasn’t removing the glue very well. Each time I finally resorted to adding a little water to get the glue off. My paint still beads up. I’m disappointed. I’ve tried other things too. Guess I’ll just keep using my small palettes from Hobby Lobby. I have two and they worked great right out of the cellophane package. (For those who want to know, it has 20 small paint wells and five mixing sections and closes.)