[Aquanet] Jet brushes

[patchapin at mindspring.com]

I have a couple of squirrel brushes, although they are black, not blue, and 
are big pointed wash brushes.  Both of them are over twenty years old, and 
frankly, when they were new they did a lot of shedding (good thing I don't 
do a lot of graded washes, because you can't pick a squirrel hair off paper 
and not leave a mark, or at least I can't!).  They are squirrel and 
something (probably polyester?) with wooden handles and silver ferules; if 
they had a brand name ever, it has long since worn away.

Whereas they return their points when shaped and dried, they do not retain 
the points well when wet, or at best retain a faint point; since I use them 
for wash brushes this is not a big consideration.  There's almost no snap at 
all in them, and when I went to school, this type of brush was called a 
'mop'; they hold tons of paint and water for their size.  By the same token, 
if you need to pick up a lot of paint off paper, wring one of mine out and 
pull it across the sheet and it will pick up a ton of paint as well.

I would never use them with acrylic paint, as the brush is so dense I'd be 
afraid of leaving paint in the interior of the brush no matter how carefully 
it was washed.

pat chapin
www.patchapin.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Davis" <peedee at nucleus.com>
To: "Aquanet" <aquanet at thedigitalbraintrust.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 8:02 AM
Subject: [Aquanet] Jet brushes


> Hi, gang.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with the Jet Brushes by Stratford and
> York? Here's the blurb from the Paint Spot in Edmonton.
>
> "Another innovative watercolour brush unique to Stratford & York. For
> Jet, the purest Blue Squirrel hair has been blended with special
> synthetic filaments to bring spring and control to the brilliant
> pointing and wondrous water holding capacity of natural squirrel hair.
> Jet is the brush to make squirrel brushes even more popular and even
> better value."
>
> As always I am highly sceptical of advertizing copy, but still the
> theory sounds good.
>
> wondering,
> pat
>
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