Silk Painting Tips - Pin Maintenance

How do you look after your silk painting equipment? Are there certain things you do to make sure that your frames and pins are in good working order?

I use the three prong metal pins with my smaller wooden frames. They work really well but do occasionally lose their little spikes and get rusty (especially if I'm using salt).



They're about £3-4 per box so not that expensive, but it does add up over time.

What I do with mine is:

1) Check them all. Discard any with broken pins.
2) Put them all in a dish and add a bit of washing up liquid and boiling water.
3) Leave to sit for about 10 mins, then give them a good stir to remove any loose debris.
4) Drain through colander (not sieve - they get stuck in the mesh!) and rinse well.
5) Lay them out on greaseproof paper on a baking sheet and put in low oven for 10 minutes to finish drying - make sure they don't overlap!

You now have some nice clean pins!

Happy painting!