splits and paints

Hi everyone, browsing through the forum, i'm really impressed with everyone's different storing techniques for their paints. I'm going to have a look for some cases the next time I can get to a hobbycraft shop.

What tubs can't you use for paints? Is it just the snazaroo that eat through the plastic? Also what do you use to cut the paints to make splits? Just a sharp knife? What's everyone's techniques?

Thank you in advance....

Snazaroo is the only paint that eats plastic & needs to stay in it's own container. When looking for a container, think of what it would be like to get your sponge down in it. If it's too deep it'll be a pain & you'll scrape your fingers. I used a tackle/bead box for a while & didn't like it because of it's depth.

For cutting cakes to make splits I use a steak knife, but you can also use an exacto knife or even a butter knife if it's a softer paint. Just make sure everything from your cutting surface to your utensils & hands are all sanitary. When I'm done I press the new splitcake with a babywipe to set it & then give it a sweep w/ a flatbrush or sponge to test it.

Are there any paints that are a nightmare to cut? and do you wet them slightly to soften them up?

Just thinking that inserts of the make up boxes would be good for this. The plastic sheeting in gift sets.

x

A cheese knife also works great.

I haven't really transplanted my paints into another container, I've just made splits with empty TAG or ABC cake containers with leftover paint from other splits.

I use one of those tiny razor sharp paring knife because they have thin blades. Mine is from Pampered Chef I think. I've had no problem cutting most brands, the only one that gave me trouble was Snaz, it crumbled like crazy. I have found that spraying a cake a few hours in advance helps if it's giving you trouble.

I've only ever made splits with Snaz, I don't moisten the paints at all and I use a Stanley knife to cut (I think this is the same as an exacto knife) I keep them in their own containers, I just swap the paints across. For instance if I'm making a split with a green and a blue, I cut the green in half and take half out and do the same with the blue and just exchange containers so I have two blue/green splits.

I actually use some of my pottery tools to make split cakes, I can just make a pass and cut out a patch and since the width is set it is easy to either lay them flat or on their edges depending on how narrow I want the split cakes to be.

I made a bunch of split cakes from snaz when I was starting out and put them in these mini paint containers and haven't had any problem with the snaz degrading the plastic.

Metallic colors can be trouble to work with depending on the brand. Paradise metallic was very crumbly, but it smooshes back together. Yellows are notoriously crumbly and hard to smoosh back together. My neons were also quite crumbly.

If you're a visual person, there's some great tutorials on youtube for watching techniques:
By Lisa Joy Young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IguUM3OrCxw

By Vi from Sparkling Faces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et0-ysWLUVQ

For me personally, I have found that if a cake is really soft refridgerating it prior to cutting helps. For the hard/crumbly kind I tend to mist them a couple of days in a row prior to working with them.