Have you joined in with the gelli plate printing fun?
I have been loving mine so much I have bought a whole class set and am now teaching with them.
That also means a class set of tools to use for printmaking and that means piles pf painty equipment to clean regularly, so I have been getting plenty of practice.
I have a shallow plastic box that I collect all the paint covered brayers and stencils and punchinella and everything else we use in and transport it home. When I get home I fill it with water till it covers everything and then I leave it to soak over night.
The next day I bring everything to the sink and use an assortment of tools to clean things up. My fingers and running water can remove quite a lot after a good soak
An old tooth brush is soft and perfect for getting a lot more paint removed, especially from little holes.
Both sides always need cleaning after youth art classes, at home I only need to clean very rarely as I manage to get most of the paint onto my work.
I also use an old glass chopping board on an angle under the tap as a flat surface to gently scrub the stencils on, it also means I don't need to bend over the sink quite so much.
Stubborn bits can be gently scrubbed with a scoring pad.
A final rinse, and its ready for the nest class/
I dry them on old nappies from when my boys were babies.
Now the gelli plates themselves, I don't soak them overnight.
They go into the sick with some dish washing liquid and warm water for a few minutes soaking.
Most of the paint comes off with gentle rubbing with my fingers but a make up sponge is very gentle and assists with any stubborn paint.
I then rinse them in clean cool water and they dry on the nappies as well. Every few weeks I follow these steps with a gentle wipe with baby oil to remove the staining in the gelli plates, this is not really needed though as the staining does not affect the gelli plates usage at all.
Then its back into my printmaking box and I am ready to go again.
How do you clean your printmaking equiptment?
