I thought I saw something useful down in the the dumpster from above, it was a paint roller. a simple long handled paint roller, but hey, i could use one in the studio.
So I hopped in the dumpster.
What I found were unopened cans of paint colorant, that is the tinting agent that they use to color house paint with. Having these allow you to make any color of paint you want. It also allows you to concentrate to color as much as you want. Most hardware stores only use as much pigment as the companies tell them to, but you can add like 4x yellow for example for a much more opaque yellow.
I also found one one-sided semi sticky plastic that i am going to try to cover a face of a painting with and cut out of, like i do with tape, but this roll is 4 feet long.
These quart cans of colorant are about 50-75 dollars each so it was quite a come up. not to mention those three unopened bottles of white (which i need), half gallon of speedball screen printing ink, and a few full gallons.
On of the gallons sounded like it had mineral spirits in it.
When i opened it up, there was this paint gun inside. I threw it away because i dont know how i would use it. But i will gladly keep the gallon on mineral spirits that the gun is soaking in!
i also found this
Maybe not considered dumpster diving, but people in the building leave things they are throwing away out in the hallways for people to scavenge.
A 4 bulb halogen lamp, likely used on a movie set. Old tech, they dont make these anymore probably. all 4 bulbs worked so i rigged it up to my ceiling and now my studio is super bright and warmer because the halogens give off a decent amount of heat. its like having a mini sun in the studio.
Looks like a good score for an artist! I think most paint stores will add more colorant if you ask them, as much as you want. The problem is that the paint base has the binders needed to stick to walls or canvas, and if you dilute it too much with colorants, the paint might not work as expected.
That plastic is usually used to cover carpets, it's super easy to apply, and it's a good protection when you are painting walls/ceilings.
The lamp is super cool, but probably spends a lot of energy! Watch your energy bill!
used to cover carpets! that make sense. yeah i wanted to mask a painting with it, cut out shapes and then stencil like i do with the masking tape but its def not as sticky as masking tape so i dont know if that will work. yeah those halogens take up a ton of watts, good thing i dont play for elec at this studio building. and your comment about the colorants, your right if you add too much, the paint wont dry
Looks like you indeed found a little bit of treasure.
When I was in Texas, people used to sit good stuff beside the dumpsters where people could take it. It had several collages and an air force base, so many people coming in and out of the area and not wanting to drag everything around. Someone could have started a great business picking stuff up and reselling it. There probably WERE people doing that too.
What a good find with all that colors, a pity someone threw them away in the garbage, at least you got them