Hello! Valerie Sjodin here, and today I’m going to be sharing tips on how to keep your Acrylograph pens to keep flowing and how to get acrylic paint pens to flow again if they are clogged or haven’t been used them for a long time, specifically the Archer & Olive’s Acrylographs. The pens come in a beautiful array of colors and I’ve found they have good coverage and are permanent.

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TIPS FOR STORING PENS

Store pens horizontally

There are a number of ways to store pens horizontally.
Some ways I store them are:

• in a plastic penholder system at my desk (shown above)where they are visible and easily accessible. 
• In a transparent bin that opens easy. Shown below is a stackable one I use, from Target. It comes with a lid.
• There are also pen and pencil holder folios that have elastic to hold each pen. I use one for travel.
• A pen pouch or creativity case from Archer & Olive

Care for pens

These might seem obvious, but I admit I haven't always done the following, and it really does help keep the pens in good working order.

• Wipe off excess paint/ink from the pen nib and shaft of the pen.
• Make sure the lid is closed completely before storing.

Get Acrylograph acrylic paint pens to flow

• Shake, shake, shake! Shaking the paint pen is important to mix the paint/ink on the inside of the pen and to get it to flow smoothly.
• Gently pressing the pen nib down on a piece of paper draws the paint/ink out. It may take a few tries until the ink flows.

Help! My pens still aren't working!

If you are like me, there are times when I don't use my paint pens for awhile, and then find some of them don't write as well. First, I go through the tips and processes listed above. If there are pens that still aren't working, I have two unconventional things I try to get the pens to flow again. They almost always work after I do them. 

It will likely help to watch the video where I demonstrate how I do it, but here is the idea, and its easy:

1. I put the tea kettle on and bring the water to a boil, and pour about one inch of the hot water into a small jar. After removing the lid of the pen that is not writing well, I put the pen, nib down into the hot water. If there are other pens that need to flow I add them to the hot water too. I leave them in the hot water for about 1-5 minutes. Then wipe of the tip and test the pen. Sometimes this is enough to get the flow going again.

If the pen is still not working, I pour out the water from the jar, rinse and try the next thing. 

2. Pour enough Isopropyl Alcohol into the jar to cover the nibs and add the pens that need to flow to the jar. Let them soak for about 10 minutes in the rubbing alcohol. Isopropyl Alcohol helps soften and take off acrylic paint. Then take a pen out, wipe the nib, put the cap on and shake the pen. Take the cap off the pen and gently press the pen to start the flow. Test and press as needed. Usually this will start the pen flowing again if there is still paint/ink in it.

If the pen is still not working, repeat step 1 with the hot water. In most cases, this has worked for me. The few times it hasn't, I replace the nib with one that came with the Acrylograph set.

Periodically, I test my paint pens and go through the above process with the ones that aren't flowing. This time I had 10 pens that weren't flowing smoothly and a few that weren't writing at all. After going through the above steps, 9 out of 10 pens were writing smoothly again. The one pen that wasn't working seemed to be out of ink/paint.

Check out the video below to see the process in action.

Here is a PDF of the care, tips and troubleshooting for Acrylographs and all acrylic paint pens.

I hope you're inspired to use your Acrylograph pens more and get more life out of them.

Below are some inspiring post using Acrylograph pens, answering questions, and more organization ideas.

Inspirational Acrylograph Posts

Answering The Top Five Questions On The Archer And Olive Acrylograph Pens

Best Storage Ideas For The Archer And Olive Acrylograph Pens

Creating Bold Illustrations With The Acrylograph Pens

Create A Swatch Page For Acrylograph Palettes

Acrylograph swatches on black paper

How To: Letter With Acrylograph Pens (Paint Pen Tutorial)

How To Draw A Mandala Using Acrylograph Pens

Find more tutorials and inspiration at my website: https://valeriesjodin.com