Aluminium Foil: Friend of Artists and Survivalists alike

My painting palette is aluminium foil.

I’ll either wrap a sheet around a hard backing like corflute, mdf, cardboard etc.

Or i’ll use one of those alo-foil lasagna containers, which are great if your paint is runnier, if you need to slosh it around it more wildly, or if you need to make mixes with a bigger spread, as you might do when gessoing an acrylic primer mix.

These give a clear representation of the colours and are easily disposable when done. They also won’t soak up the binder, and if you cover it up with another foil layer you can keep the paint from drying.

IMO, wooden palettes are largely pointless. They look glamorous and artsy but hark from a pre-alo-foil era when they were a painters best option. The wood has a tendency to soak up the oil if its not varnished/coated properly. The idea was also that earlier painters has had a broad surface to mix on and have multiple colours on hand as they moved around a big work.

Maybe one day i’ll see the light and will give it another try, but can’t forsee its necessity today. One less superfluous thing you have to buy and store.

As for other applications: filling for clay sculptures, cooking (obviously), filling gaps in a house to stop vermin entry (I’ve done this with success in my place), blocking windows if you have to work in a room without aircon (a pub chef I worked with used to do this), a DIY splashback for stoves if you live in a crappy place.

As long as you don’t have to heat the alo itself you can wrap it around wood pieces to expand its form. I did this with the rat problem. Wrapped it around timber slats.

Cold storage of foodstuffs aswell like sandwiches or any other organic solid that you want to delay the decomposition of.

Baking a potato, wrapping sandwiches etc.

And how could I forget making hats. These are essential for protecting your head from all sorts of alien intrusions, so I’ve heard.

There seems some difference in brand quality. Glad is usually guaranteed quality in oz, but sometime back I also picked up a pack of Multix and can report it is just as a good for many applications. So you can call me a Multix Man. Prefer not to be called a Glad Man please.

You can’t go wrong with Multix. If you’re making it mind-control-proof, make it Multix.