Wednesday-9am

The brush hanger and the smaller jar in front are Chinese brushes. I have wrapped a lot of them with (plastic red) tape to keep the handles from splitting, as Haiying suggested. I am not sure if you need to wrap the handles that have plastic next to the brush or not? I keep forgetting to ask if I should wrap those too?

The jar in the back is filled with watercolor brushes. The two long handled brushes lying in the front are the two Leah picked out to use on her wooden boxes--and didn't want to have to search for again--hehe!

In the hall bookcase all the rest of the brushes are stored on the top shelf. Oil, acrylic, mini watercolor, crummy odds and ends brushes, and the bad brushes from Giant Panda.

The second shelf down has assorted items for the brush painting. And scattered around on those two shelves are various bowls Leah made. I am not sure we are going to use all of them for water--but the ones on the top shelf are for paint water, for sure. Have already been assigned or used for that. :)

The rolls on top of the bookcase are practice rolls and one good roll of rice paper. My goal is to get them down and use them in 2008!

Now that I have some seals/chops--I put them on a metal cover to keep them together and make it easier to move them (and the seal mud) about.
I keep them up on the shelf over the air conditioner in the corner next to the window--where the stamping stuff is kept.

Leah and I tried to make some paperweights for the brush painting at the pottery class. Several of them broke (smaller pile to the right)--not sure if they will work very well because they aren't very heavy. I am not sure if they will leave marks on the paper, either? They are rough and may need to be coated with polyurethane--IF they even are heavy enough to actually hold down a roll of paper, of course. We'll see...

I'm not sure where I'll put them in the summer when I need to take off the air conditioner cover. But maybe that will be moot point by that time...hehe! They may not be viable--who knows?

Yesterday I did set up and play with the brush painting a little!! TaDa! I was wondering if I could use the awful Giant Panda brushes for making branches. I tried about eight of them. Did not work at all. Most of them will not hold water/ink for more than a couple of inches--even full. And dry--they leave almost no mark at all. They are the worst brushes! They might not end up being good for anything whatsoever?

Of course, I have not tried to make branches before--and it is possible that I am doing it totally the wrong way. But--the brushes should still hold more liquids than they do when loaded to the max, I would think? All the liquid comes out at once, kind of. Some of them are hard to get water into them in the first place--and the ink doesn't travel down the bristles so that you can have some ink on the ends to dry brush with. Very odd brushes. Hard to describe. I am thinking they are made from back hair--that repells water, you know? Ha! Well--who knows? I just was hoping I could avoid scumbling up a new brush making branches, you know? Maybe not. I'll try again with the Giant Pandas first.

So that is what I was doing yesterday. :)

And will be doing more of today. :)

Hope everybody had a very nice Christmas!