The $10 Wet Palette

There are many benefits to using a wet palette with acrylic paints and inks. The main one for me is the fact that the paint stays wet during a painting session. Let me explain, sometimes when painting a mini or batch of minis, I don’t have the color I want to use, so I will mix the color I need. Now, everyone knows details often escape the Floozy. Several minutes into a painting session I will discover the cloak I painted in that custom mixed color wraps under and around a figures ankle and I didn’t paint it. In the days before I used a wet palette, that custom color is now dried – good luck on replicating that color!

Commercial wet palettes are an investment with some costing $50.00 to $70.00. But what if I told you a durable commercial quality wet palette could be made for about $10.00?

The sponge in my wet palette is a grungy mess, so it was time to replace it. The wet palette I have is the smaller sized wet palette from Masterson’s. If the name Masterson’s sounds familiar, they make one of the best brush cleaner soap and conditioner. Here’s a picture of the gross mess:

The wet palette I’m going to make is often attributed to Marco Fisoni, I don’t think he was the first to make this particular kind of wet palette, but he certainly made it popular. The first step is to purchase a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. These appear in my grocery store around Christmas time for around $5.00. The chocolates with the hazelnut center are quickly consumed by Floozies and grandchildren alike. This leaves you with a flat air tight hard plastic container.

The second item for your wet palette is a sponge. Again, at the grocery store I was able to find a package of sponge cloth for a little under $2.50. There were three in the pack and I only need one, but I can put the other two in a zip lock bag for future used. Just remove the tray insert from the chocolate box (save it for later for cool Sci-Fi terrain) and plop in the sponge.

The final piece is a sheet of parchment or baking paper – not wax paper! The parchment paper is semipermeable and allows water to move through it through osmosis. Again, this is something you can find in your grocery store for $2.00 to $3.00 bucks.

So there you have it, a wet palette that you can get several years use out of and it is another tool which will increase your painting productivity and boost your skills. For more on the wet palette, here is Marco’s video:

Post Script: For my own use, I’m throwing away the sponge from my Masterson’s Sta-Wet Handy Palette, running the palette through the dishwasher and just put a new sponge cloth in it. The DIY palette is larger, so one the Masterson one will be used for when I travel to painting events.

I hope you found this little post helpful. Your comments, criticisms, and flirtatious flatteries are always welcome. No Floozies were harmed in the making of this post.