"Shaken or Stirred?" Topic

How do you mix your paints?

Most of my colors are craft paints, so I obviously shake them. But, my other paints are in those clever bottles where the paint builds up in the cap and threads and welds the lid on tighter than a wedgie in public. Some brands of good paint also come in bottles where this isnt a problem. My local stockist doesnt carry such items.

My painting teacher taught me to stir the bottle paints with the handle of my brush, carefully wiping off any that got on the neck/threads of the bottle.

What does everyone else do? I'm just curious and always on the lookout for possible improvements to my methods.

Stirring helps keep air bubbles from forming. also pigments are too heavy to be re suspended by shaking. I stir whenever possible

For hobby paints, I put stainless steel BB's (metal spheres) in the paint when I buy it. Then, when I shake the bottle, the BB's help stir it around.

I got the tip from someone else, don't remember where...

Make sure the BB's are stainless steel - regular steel BB's end up as rust in your paint....

I shake the craft bottles, and usually squeeze out a couple drops on a pallette, so I'm not too worried about air bubbles. The smaller jars which require pliers to open I stir. I have a bottle of toothpicks just for the purpose, but I've been known to use plastic coffee sticks too. Just have to make sure to keep those out of the coffee afterward.....

Always go with what your teachers tell you. I am a stirrer myself myself.

I shake my paints. This does result in bubble but a good firm smack to the base of the bottle will settle them out. Just...uh...watch that the lids are on tight. I'm still finding blue flecks in my hair....

If you roll the bottles between the palms of your hands, it will mix the paint without getting bubbles in it. If you're holding it upside down while you do that it'll mix in any pigments that have settled out.

This is also true for nail-varnish, but this is probably less useful information.

Turn upside down and shake. Bits of brass wire, stainless BBs, etc are tossed in to aid in mixing. Yeah, I know the wire is bad and I sometimes use bits of flash as well but never had a real problem.

Shaken...not stired. :) I don't find any problems with bubles. I have a very good control technique when painting so I only use the correct amount of paint. Bubles never form. :)

I have been shaking my bottles for years. Then I paint off the cap. Never noticed bubbles in my paint. Consider there is only 3/4 of an ounce in some and the amount you use per piece is so small I worry more on my paints drying out first.

Vallejo can't be stirred, and MUST be shaken. It is pointless to shake Humbrol, it MUST be stirred. So the usual answer to an "either/or" question is...... "It Depends!"

Shaken, not stirred.

Bond, James Bond.

If you have a problem with paint drying on the threads of the paint bottle, try a small amount of petroleum jelly on the threads. I keeps the paint off the threads and also makes it easier to open the jar.

Another tip to keep the jar threads clean is cover the top of the jar with a piece of foil large enough to completely cover the top of the open jar and threads and then just screw on the cap over the foil. You can safely shake and just replace the foil when/if you need to...keeps the jar more airtight, too, delaying drying out of the paints. I also store my paint bottles upside down, which make the air bubble go to the opposite end of the cap. I have maintained bottles of paint for years this way.

"Vallejo can't be stirred, and MUST be shaken."

Not entirely true. You can fairly easily remove the nozzle top, give a quick stir, and then put it back on. It's a bit of pain and is obviously not something you wanted to do each and every time you use the paint, but doing it every now and then can be helpful.

Example: I bought a bottle of of Vallejo's 'super-gold' (the alcohol-based one). The problem was that a lot of the 'pigment' (I understand it's actually real metal shavings)had settled out of the solution and had formed a solid lump at the bottom. No amount of shaking would help. I did a quick stir, however, and it disloged the settled paint beautifully. Now, all I need to do is shake it. (There are a few other Vallejos that I've had to do this to as well.)

Oh yes, speaking of Vallejos, I should mention that I've found the "BB" in the bottle to be an invaluable aid in shaking. I don't use actual BBs, though, but rather small glass beads which I purchased at a local bead store. It's the same procedure... take the nozzle top of, insert bead,
put nozzle back on, and then shake vigorously.

Cool! This thread ended up as a Poll Question.

I have to take my 15 minutes of fame any way I can :-)

Sure "the editor", now you tell me about "stainless steel" as my "balls" are "rusting" in my paint ...

Where would be the best location for stainless steel bb's or is there some sort of ball bearing substitute?

Cheers, Cattledog "AroooOOOOO"

"Cattledog"-- As I noted (in a rather long comment above), you can use small glass beads instead of BBs. Depending on where you live, there might actually be "bead shops" you can go to. If not, you might just check general art/craft supply stores fr them.