Airbrushing..

[Maniah]

I work decorating cakes, so I know that no matter how hard you try, airbrush mist gets EVERYWHERE. I make cakes, blow my nose when I get home, and it looks like I spent all day snorting rainbows!

Anyway.. I rent an apartment and really don't want to abandon all hope on the deposit.. My apartments are surrounded by trees. Its generally windy here.. So Airbrushing both indoors and outdoors just won't work.

The only idea I have come up with so far is to pitch a pup tent, and get a painters mask.. But.. the apartment is tiny.. Even for a single person pup tent, I don't see anywhere to put it.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks that don't involve putting plastic all over my entire home?

Im guessing the answers are going to be a "Nope, You're out of luck!" series of entries.. But maybe someone will surprise me.

[Tiella]

I airbrush indoors all the time. I do it in my kitchen and I have a big cardboard box with the front and top cut off I use.

[Maniah]

I airbrush indoors all the time. I do it in my kitchen and I have a big cardboard box with the front and top cut off I use.

For how many years? Heh. I have seen airbrush color build up in some odd places at work. Thank goodness it's just food coloring.

[Tiella]

Just a few months, and yes I do get a little overspray now and then but it is acrylic paint so easily cleanable and I do it in front of my microwave which is easy to clean. Technically I have a garage, but living in Florida the humidity levels are terrible most of the time and I have an outdoor kitty that can be pesky when trying to work outdoors.

[Firebyrd]

Honestly, the best option is a spray booth, which is basically a box open on one side that has a fan (the sort of thing like in an oven hood, not the kind you use to blow air around) and filter that sucks the paint particles (or fumes if you're working with chemicals) away from you.  There's fancy expensive ones you can buy  or you can do various things to make your own.  My dad's is basically a plywood box with a fan, an ac filter shoved up against the fan so stuff gets sucked through it, and a light on this inside so you can see what you're doing.  As you noted from your work, those particles get aerosol-ed and end up everywhere, including your lungs, so it's a safety issue as well as a cleanliness one.  While I would hope food coloring, being a food product, isn't going to do you much harm from your work, paint is another matter altogether.  It's always been kind of worrisome to me how cavalierly the pony community treats this stuff.

[Maniah]

Yeah. Airbrushing is nothing to sneeze at. It has been making me wish we owned our own house though. Then I could have a craft room and just not care how painty it got.

I do hope people remember safety when doing all of their customizing. I know I sure do. I would like to think that they do. It's just common sense to take a lot of safety precautions and since it's common sense it should go without saying right? So I think most people just don't say it. Then it just appears careless when it really isn't.

[NoDivision]

I know there are some customizers who wear masks or respirators when airbrushing because over time it has caused some pretty unpleasant medical problems.

[okiegurl1981]

I live with my parents, and my airbrush and I have been banished outdoors.    Makes it hard tho, because right now it's cold and yucky outside and it's 100+ in the summer.   I use a cardboard box as a makeshift spray booth and I always wear a mask when airbrushing or even sanding apoxie.  The one time i didn't wear one, I had blue boogers after I got done painting a Trixie, lol.