How to make your brushes last longer
Share
The current state of brushes: Expensive and creeping up in price!!
Paint brush manufacturing is a specialized skill with several or all parts being done by hand. Even "good brands" of brushes have manufacturing facilities in China, which some people may assume means poor quality or slave labor. (That's not always the case with every company!) In the past, European-made brushes like Winsor & Newton had been a bit higher but now even Asia-made brushes like Princeton are practically the same price.
There are no good artist paintbrushes I've found that are made in USA. They are made in countries that are currently being tariffed by the US government. (China, India, Taiwan, Thailand are some top brush-making countries) As you may already be aware of, tariffs are something that ultimately trickle down to the end consumer....and makes prices rise for us. Some politicians don't seem to be aware of this, so if your source of information is a politician's social media or sound bytes rather than historical or economic fact, you might be surprised by this fact. But it's true.
If you've heard businesses describe how much money and time it takes to set up manufacturing, you'll know it's not feasible for them to magically set up shop in the US instead of keeping their current facility locations overseas. I don't expect any government tariffs to make them want to move their manufacturing here. If they actually do, I'd expect it to be priced more like an Escoda brush, which is entirely handmade in Spain and costs over $1400. (Yes, I put the right amount of zeroes. Also an Amazon affiliate link, shoud you decide to purchase one and want to automatically send some digital pennies my way.....hey, you never know!)
Since I keep a list of supply costs for my classes, I've been seeing the prices on things creep up this year. I wish I could afford wholesale sets, but for the quantity I use for myself and class, that would be a silly amount of money to spend as a small business. Therefore, I have to purchase everything at retail price. So do I constantly remind students of a few things about brush care? Ohhhh yes. Yes, I do.
If you have young art students, you can help by reiterating these three brush care things at home:
1. Do not leave the brush in the water.
Leaving it in the water causes water to seep up into the metal ferrule and make the glue dissolve, the wood expand, and the paint peel off the handle. Always "tap-tap-tap" the brush on the side of the bucket, then set it down on the table. A folded rag is a great "parking spot" for brushes if they're not currently in your hand.
2. Wipe and rinse acrylic brushes often throughout the project.
Acrylic paint dries in the bristles and ruins brushes. Occasionally wiping it on a damp rag can also remove excess paint from the ferrule area, which is a tricky place. Paint can creep up into the bristles in this area, drying and causing the bristles to splay outward.
This is actually the #1 reason why I have to get new acrylic brushes for kids. Even older kids and teens are not really aware of the quantity of paint they're using and how it sneaks up on your ferrule. It happens to me too! The amount of paint you're loading onto your brush from your palette is just something you have to practice and pay attention to. So as much as I stay on top of brush care with my students, it's inevitable this will happen simply because they haven't reached that milestone yet.
....Which is why we occasionally need to rinse the brush fully in water throughout the painting session! While I do recommend wiping on a damp rag, of course it doesn't clean as thoroughly as a good rinse in the bucket. However, a bucket rinse can dilute the paint more than you want, so be sure to wipe it on a rag after a rinse.
....Which brings me to #3:
3. Make sure brushes get thoroughly cleaned at the end.
Nothing beats a thorough bath at the end of a painting session. Water should be cool, NOT hot. Hot water can dissolve the glue inside the ferrule, causing bristles to fall out more quickly over time.
By the end of the wash, the water should run clear. If you like, you can also add a gentle soap to your washing protocol. There are special brush soaps* you can get if you'd like to make extra certain that you brushes last a long time. (*Amazon affiliate link - also available at local shops like Hawaiian Graphics and Ben Franklin.)