The clothespin is the most commonly suggested and almost everyone has them. Unfortunately most clothes pins are to chintzy and lack the ability to grasp hold of those full cups of molten wax.
A pair pliers work nicely but they can also be awkward to use. Pliers like the clothespin have a perpendicular grasp which makes it difficult to pour the wax out of the cup. Pliers are alright for taking cups of wax off of your palette, so long as you dont mind having waxy pliers. Yet there is something better.
Finding an old handle like one off a capuchino carafe, like I strapped onto one of my large palette cups, was not a bad idea; but, it was only good for that one (round) palette cup - and permanently attached.
Well if you want to lift and pour but don't want the clothespin to fail and spill, or more control than pliers will do, all with the addition of not dumping hot wax on your hand, or if you don't want a bunch of handles geting in the way because they are permanently fixed to you cups - there is a solution. The solution is a common accessory to a camper's kitchen, called a pot lifter. As cheap as a few bucks you won't break the bank and many there are many styles, brands, and designs to choose from. They work simply by hand pressure, squeezing the lifter will grip almost anything fantastically; and it makes pouring wax a cinch. So you might ask: Is there a downside? Some designs put your knuckles close to the palette surface, but this is manageable. And other designs won't allow you to lift something off a flat surface because they were originally made for a pot or bowl that sits on a camp stove that is several inches from any surface. It is all a matter of choosing the right one.
Remember, like all the other options mentioned here, the lifter is also dipped partially inside the palette cup and will collect wax where it grasps. This can cause slight contamination of colors when going from one cup to another. The answer to this problem is simply clean it off, or have a couple on hand. One lifter for light colors such as the medium and whites, and one for dark colors like blacks, blues, and browns; of course a third or fourth if you are really picky - or one for all the colors in between.
