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How to Pack Artists’ Brushes when Moving by Amylee

How to Pack Artists’ Brushes when Moving by Amylee

Are you planning to move your studio soon? Oh lala I know what that’s like. I had to move twice in 2015. My biggest fear during a studio move is that I will break my tools, especially my brushes

They are too precious and I am the only one able to take care of their “little blond heads”. So here’s the solution for packaging safely. An idea directly inspired by the bamboo mats that watercolour painters use to carry their brushes. On D-Day, this kind of packaging allowed me to transport my whole family of brushes in the best condition.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee

Materials you need

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee

Find all the products on GreatArt Online or in our new art supply shop in London Shoreditch.

Brush cases

In my tutorial, I use long brushes (about 30cm or 12”). To make things simple and easy when packing brushes, I gather them by sizes: long ones on one side, small on another side, and so on.
To pack these long brushes, I need a large sheet of bubble wrap.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee
1/ Step cutting

To check the size of my bubble wrap sheet, I put a little bunch of fifteen brushes on my sheet. I leave some space (2 or 3 cm, around 1inch) between each brush.

The tip for a quick and freehand cut is to leave some edge (15cm or 6inch) around the brushes while you’re cutting

2/ Assembly

Then, with crepe tape, I fix all brushes to the bubble wrap sheet so that they do not slip from their case during moving (see picture below).

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee
3/ Folding

Now I fold 2 sides of my sheet. The 2 sides which make an angle. Look at my picture below, one flap protects the brushes between them (arrow number 1) and the other (arrow number 2) protects the tips. Flap number 2 is important because it gives bulk and stiffness to bubble wrap. It is like a buffer to soften the blows and shocks.

Notice: To protect the tips, do not bend the flap to close to the heads of brushes, leave a lost edge (around 2 to 3 cm or 1 inch).

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee

4/ Rolling is packing !

As pictured just below, roll the whole bubble wrap and secure the case with crepe tape.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee
Repeat these steps with all brushes you need to pack.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee

In the box

The best way is to take a slightly larger cardboard box in order to arrange rolls comfortably. To avoid damage to brush tips, lay them all in the middle next to each other.

Notice: To protect the rolls during moving, pad the sides with balls of old papers.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee

There you go! Now brushes can be moved safely.

All you have to do is to note (or draw) what the box contains. It’s an easy way to find tools in the right room on unpacking day.

How to Pack Artists' Brushes when Moving by Amylee


Information for this article was provided by professional fine artist, Amylee Paris. You can visit her colourful portfolio or follow her on Facebook and Instagram

Find all Amylee’s posts published in GreatArt online Magazine by clicking here!


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