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I’m not going to lie but I’m not always great at remembering to clean my art supplies after use. Well that being said I had a few stencils with dried acrylic paint on them. I’d tried a media/stencil cleaner in the past and it didn’t even remove the paint. So I just left it and figured It would come off eventually.
Well, recently I was looking up some art supplies and came across a very interesting comment. When I was searching for a rubber roller I saw a person suggest a very good cleaning solution for dried on acrylic paint. They suggested soaking the items in water with Murphy’s oil.
I figured I’d give it a try. I had forgotten to clean off a plastic palette that I had used about a week or so ago. I also thought I’d soak the old stencils that had caked on paint too.
What you’ll need
Here’s what you’ll need
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- Water
- Murphy’s oil
- a bowl, pan or container to fit the items you will be soaking
- Items that need to be cleaned
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I added a bit of soap as well to my cleaning mixture. I also found that warm water worked best.
Cleaning process
Once you have all of your items together you can fill your container with water (soap is optional) and add your Murphy’s oil. I didn’t have the original product so I used what I had on hand. I added a few drops into the bowl then added my plastic palette and stencils.
Soaking time will vary
Cleaning and soaking time will vary. I also think the temperature of the water helps to break down the paint faster. Again it may just depend on how much Murphy’s oil you add to the mix as well. I went about my business with another project as the items soaked.
End result
I found that the paint lifts off the plastic palette easily and quickly. You can peel it off or rub it off once you remove the item from the cleaning solution. You may need to give your items a good rinse with clean water to remove any paint residue or oil.
I cleaned my palette with a paper towel and rubbed off any excess paint. It cleaned well. As for the stencils, they are still soaking. Since they were caked in paint I figured I’ll leave them for a while.
All I can say is I’m impressed by this cleaning method. I’m glad it works and happy I learned about it.
Do you think you’d try this the next time you need to get acrylic paint off something?
