New Orleans oil painting: DIY Paint Brush or Painting Pouch (Or Handmade Bubble Mailer)

Getting ready for air travel is a lot more complicated these days than let's say back in February 2001: My husband and I took a trip to Japan together for the first time, and we had a huge bottle of shochu in our carry-on luggage on our way back to the U.S. There were gallons of (somewhat) flammable liquids on that transpacific flight.

I've been doing some research on flying with my painting gear, and I almost gave up couple of times. But hey, painting on location seemed like a nightmare especially without a car, but it hasn't been that difficult once you got what you needed to make it happen. So here is what I did today in preparation for my upcoming painting trip - I made a paint brush pouch using double bubble insulation material, insulation tape, and velcro tape.

why don't I just buy a nice brush wallet at art supply stores?
I didn't have time or $20.

Recycled plastic grocery bags have been my brush bags of choice. You just cover your brushes with leftover paint at the end of the painting session, double bag them with grocery bags and stick them in the freezer at home. My teacher Phil had taught me well: the brushes last longer that way and you don't have to clean 15 brushes every night.

Obviously you shouldn't take a long trip with oil paint-covered brushes so I washed them today. Now what? I have to pack them nicely into my checked baggage so that the airport security won't declare them weapons.

scissors, a sharpie and a ruler are my friends forever

Some of you may be thinking, but wait, is using reflective material a good idea for air travel, even in a checked luggage? The answer is no, and it is a horrible idea. But my suitcase will be inspected anyway with all the paint tubes and palette knives and whatnot, so at this point it doesn't really matter. All I can do is label everything so that it is obvious to the security personnels that they are for painting and not to harm anybody on the plane.

I can hear you saying, why don't you just use a bubble mailer? Sure. But I didn't have one around. Instead I already had this huge roll of insulation material that I bought to make giant pouches to fit my large paintings. By the way those pouches really work well for both framed and unframed paintings because they are basically, you guessed it, reusable giant bubble mailers. Although not suitable for shipping, in-town delivery to art fairs, galleries, etc. is a breeze thanks to my lovely shiny insulation buddies.

The material cost here maybe much greater than a $20 brush wallet with nice zippers, if you had to buy everything I mentioned. But as I said, they were already here at home, and you can make about a hundred little pouches with one roll of insulation. Plus I got to make things myself and pretty soon this brush pouch will be covered with my fat sharpie doodles. You can't do that on a fancy brush wallet, can you!?