Few things delight me as much as a handful of new brushes. Each year I buy plenty. Some are long and thin while others full and bushy. Each brush is different with its own personality and each has a special task in our shop, able to do with ease things that a different brush would make a chore. I have my favorites of course.
Over time each brush develops character, able to tell at a glance of the projects it was used on. Bits of paint speak of the colors it spread. Bent hairs spell out it is now merely a primer brush used to scrub primer onto rough work. Angled brushes tell of difficult corners and hard to reach places, impossible to reach any other way. A few of the brushes still look new or almost so, rookies in our painting game, waiting for many painting adventures still in store.
After each use brushes are carefully washed, straightened and shaped then racked for drying - ready for the next time its needed. They hang out together between projets in a large piece of white beaded foam.
In another place in our shop is the graveyard for brushes now sadly out of commission. We call it the place of shame, for most of the brushes displayed here were inadvertently left out while still full of paint. Caught in time we can often rescue them, but as often as not the brushes die a horrible death, suffocated with a heavy coat of paint. Thankfully they don't suffer long.
Brushes are our faithful friends, ready to make the world a more colorful place in Yarrow...
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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rapid remover and some soak time and then a easy combing will get them ruined brushes back..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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My Brushes...there's the Lettering Quills, Striping Brushes, Pointies, these are the Oil based ones, of course... fitches, hard and soft haired, and, with the work on movies,tv, all the myriad water based ones, including 2" 3" 4" cutters... oh yes, my collection of Red Sable Showcard Brushes, going back to 1963... and it's the Same Story with ALL of Them...when i need one, they all(in their particular groupings, they DO know thier place in the scheme of things....) well, they all holler "Me Me Me...." and i have to have a little talk with them...brushes have feeling too... and then choose the one that will do the job...today.
It's my extended family...have to be gentle.
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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well Dan I agree but must add, most all brushes which are hardened by paint can be brought back to life if you truly know how to and if it's worth it to you. My proven system makes this happen for quills, fitches, flats and liners or scroll brushes. I've spoken about this here many times in the past and the only problem most persons see is the cost to a bigger ultrasonic cleaner. Although Curtis is somewhat on the right track there are other tools used to actually make this happen and from my standpoint, its worthwhile.
Understanding brushes in Grants Pass
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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...Joey, I'd love to know how to restore brushes. I inherited some great flats the have a dried 'mystery' material in them. I'm not sure how to remove it. Is the process the same for brushes w. dried oil or h20 paint in them?
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