You know, when despite all your precautions, one corner of a tube pokes a hole into the body of another so the next time you pick it up things get messy.
I travel a lot with paint. I drive, train, fly, and yes, now even take ferries across expansive bodies of water with large and small tubes of paint. Normally I pack everything so carefully that punctures don't happen to me. Well, at least, not as often as they should.
But halfway through my last trip to Croatia I opened up my paint box and grabbed a big ol' 150 ml tube of white and started squeezing...and immediately felt my palm filling up with a big ol' pile of paint.
Eeeeewwww!...
First I wondered what I should do. Then I began rummaging around in my backpack. I found a scrap of t-shirt I had been using as a rag and wrapped it around the leak and spent the rest of the trip gently squeezing out color as needed, consistently applying pressure right above the hole. A few days later I after I got home I pulled out the paint box to start prepping for yet another trip. To my surprise I found the paint between the cloth and tube had dried, sealing the leak like a patch on rubber bicycle tube.
How cool is that?
I don't think I would risk flying with a patched tube due to the unpressurized baggage area of a plane, but I will be happy to use the rest of this paint in the comfort of my studio. I'll buy a replacement tube for my next flight in November to Scottsdale.
And, in the interim, I'll start applying this other nifty trick I just figured out.
Two or three layers of duct tape – with excess material to blunt those dang corners...
TJK
2 reader comments:
Tubes are large and can leak. I started using a Plano waterproof stowaway box. It is 9x5 inches, has 18 compartments, and clamps shut tight, which keeps paints from drying. I pour enough paint for the trip, and at the time of painting transfer the necessary amount over to the palette with a palette knife. It has worked so far.
Thank you for your tip, Marcio. I have used shatterproof plastic jars in a similar way in the past. I will take a look at the plan box you mention.
T
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