joeDear Darrell, I understand from your European Distributor’s website that you have a new supplier that you’ve been testing and found quite favorable results. Would you mind sharing this information with us? I would like to try them out myself. Brandon W.
That’s an excellent question. This entire adventure resulted from a student, Richard, who showed up one day with the ‘Shipmate’ brand of 2″ and 1″ brushes. I’d never seen them before. I watched him and saw no difference between what he was doing with those brushes compared to the horsehair brushes he’d used previously. He had 3 sets with him and about half way through I asked him if I could try a set.
Well he actually gave me a set and I was quite pleased with the results.
I can do everything with these brushes. They are just as good. The horsehair brushes I have will last about 70 or 80 paintings whereas these brushes last at least 50 paintings.
But then again it all depends upon what we’re doing. I never use new brushes for putting on medium or undercoating. I use new brushes only for highlighting. This really stretches out the life of the brush considerably. Also using Baby oil to clean the brushes helps in longevity as well.
In any case, I’ve been using these brushes quite well for a year now.
Again, they’re Shipmate Brushes, I find them at regular painting stores or on-line.
Here’s a link where I order them in bulk,
http://www.onlinefloorstore.com/store/mfgline/?id=164
There’s a minimum shipping amount you pay, so unless you’re ordering quite a few, the paint stores are your best choices. I just called around until I found one that carried the brand. So hardware stores and paint stores are the places to look.
Darrell
PS…. I’ve been looking at an inexpensive alternative to my loving Black Handled Oval brush. When you look at the brush, it’s a thick filbert brush. So I’ve been working with #12-#16 filberts. Some give excellent results, some do not. I’ll let you know once I’m satisfied.