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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Studio Tip...Get Ground Pastel Out of Your Carpet!

'Warm Wind'             5x7            pastel               ©Karen Margulis
click to purchase $45
 The blue pastels were fast and furious this week. We were painting blue skies and clouds.  Every once in awhile a pastel would take flight. Has this happened to you?  You are happily painting and all of the sudden the pastel just flies out of your fingers and lands on the floor....usually in pieces. A sad event and a messy one.

I have a new discovery that will take care of the pastel mess on the carpet.  And it only cost a dollar.  Yes I have been to the Dollar Tree again!  It is called LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner (as seen on TV) and I was skeptical. Would it live up to it's name?


Some beautiful blue pastel ground into the carpet
Awesome Cleaner to the Rescue! The results after only one treatment,
after the second treatment the stains were completely gone!
Yes It was Awesome!  It took care of the ground in blue pastel as well as some leftover red and yellow that I wasn't able to get completely out with other carpet cleaners. It bills itself as an all purpose concentrated cleaner, degreaser and spot remover. It is meant to be diluted but I sprayed it full strength on the pastel spots. It took two treatments...spray and wipe up with baby wipes.  The spots were gone!

I read about this cleaner on a facebook thread on cleaning up oil paint messes. This cleaner was recommended and I thought if it worked for dried oil paint it should work for pastel!  I even tried it on an old black acrylic paint stain on my carpet and it just melted the paint. The carpet was fine. Totally Awesome!

TIP: When cleaning up a pastel mess always vacuum with the hose to get up most of the dust. You want to get as much of the loose pigment up as you can otherwise you just turn it into more paint when you wet it. Suck up the dust first then treat the remaining stain. 

'Desert Patchwork'           5x7          pastel
click here to purchase $45


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2 comments:

  1. Unknown4:08 PM

    I've admired your beautiful art for years now. I love your colors and shapes. Clouds are fun to create! I try to do some fun things with my clouds as well. ~Karen Fields

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  2. robertsloan2art1:28 PM

    Glad to know there's something that gets pigment out of carpets.

    I'd probably get rid of the carpet if I owned what I live in, but that's me. I prefer rugs that can be thrown in the wash and I'd have a special one around the painting area. The really colorful one, something like the jeans I wore to sell paintings. People see it, they know, yeah, there's a little of everything I ever did on that rug and that's all right.

    Of course I haven't had many pastels skitter that far either, your carpet may save a lot of your collection.

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