I personally wouldn't recommend leaving soap to dry in the bristles... soap has a tendency to dry itself out, so it might damage the bristles if left in too long. I don't know that for a fact, but none of my classmates or professors did that with their brushes at Ringling. For cleaning the paint out of them while you're working, I'd recommend one of these. It has a coil in the bottom of it with a snail-shell-like coiled surface to run your bristles across to thoroughly work the paint out of them. It was a recommended piece of supplies in my painting classes, so I don't think it's harmful. Don't leave brushes sitting in the water while you're working, though, because that can bend the bristles.
When you go to do the final clean out before storing them I'd recommend running them under warm water and massaging the bristles until the water is completely clear, then rub the bristles in that brush soap, massage that in with your fingers, then rinse the soap out, strain excess water out of the bristles with your fingers, and then use your fingers to shape the tip of the brush. I think that gives it a tighter shape than running it against your palm when it comes to storage.
Yep, I have been using one of those for about as long as the soap. I stopped running the bristles over the coils because it seemed to make things worse, it's not really made for brushes this small.
Massaging... after using these tiny brushes for a long time that point feels like quite a temperamental beast to me, and fragile too, so I am hesitant to try cleaning them with my fingers. Before I used the soap I used to basically did what you described but with a paper towel between my fingers, however any point was lost after the brush had thoroughly dried (they start fraying out)
I think I also have problems with water getting trapped in my ferrules, which is why some of my brushes start to have bristles that come off when painting (also depends on the manufacturer). That's an unrelated matter though.
When you go to do the final clean out before storing them I'd recommend running them under warm water and massaging the bristles until the water is completely clear, then rub the bristles in that brush soap, massage that in with your fingers, then rinse the soap out, strain excess water out of the bristles with your fingers, and then use your fingers to shape the tip of the brush. I think that gives it a tighter shape than running it against your palm when it comes to storage.
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Massaging... after using these tiny brushes for a long time that point feels like quite a temperamental beast to me, and fragile too, so I am hesitant to try cleaning them with my fingers. Before I used the soap I used to basically did what you described but with a paper towel between my fingers, however any point was lost after the brush had thoroughly dried (they start fraying out)
I think I also have problems with water getting trapped in my ferrules, which is why some of my brushes start to have bristles that come off when painting (also depends on the manufacturer). That's an unrelated matter though.
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