Nail Brushes - Aren't They All The Same?
Fine artists paint brushes have been made from the natural hair from animals for centuries. So finding materials to make synthetic brushes has always been a challenge...
Synthetic
Fine artists paint brushes have been made from the natural hair from animals for centuries. So finding materials to make synthetic brushes has always been a challenge. In a quest to try to make "the better brush" manufacturers began experimenting with synthetic fibers like nylon. The problem was to find out how to make the plastic fiber absorbent. What the brush makers finally found was that synthetic fiber treated with a chemical, like an acid, caused the fiber to get little pits on the surface. Those little pits give the water (monomer for nail artists) a place to sit on the brush hair until it is applied to the surface.
Then the brush makers were left with the other characteristic that differentiates synthetic fiber from natural hair… split ends! Yes, the little split at the end of a natural hair makes for a great point on an art brush. Monofilament nylon doesn’t have that. To solve this dilemma, manufacturers’ stacked the fiber to artificially make a point. This did not result in a desired brush. The real solution was a combination of stacking and varying the thicknesses of the filament. This discovery not only created a nice point, but also gave synthetic brushes a feel more like natural hair brushes.
Art brushes made with synthetic fibers have their advantages. Synthetic fiber brushes are much less expensive than natural hair brushes in addition to being very durable. A synthetic brush can deal with artist-style punishment that natural hair brushes cannot.
Natural Hair Brushes
Why are there so many different kinds of natural hair brushes? The reason is simple. Each kind of natural hair has its own specialty. Different natural hairs are known for their durability, springiness, absorbency, softness, or cost effectiveness. All of those different characteristics can be valuable for different techniques. Here is a little information about the most common kinds of hair used when making brushes.
Kolinsky Sable: This is the top of the line, premier natural hair for all types of artists. Kolinsky sable hair is perfect for art brushes because it is soft, points well and carries tons of liquid (water, paint, or monomer). This is helpful for artists so they don’t have to continually go back to the palette (or dappen dish) to recharge their paint brush. Kolinsky is actually the tail hair from male Siberian Sable or Mustela Siberica. Male animals generally have thicker hair than females and sables raised in this cold environment have even thicker and stronger hair.
Red Sable, Black Sable (a.k.a. Fitch): Red or Black sable is a natural hair that is also derived from sables, but not necessarily the hardiest ones. Red and Black sable brushes have many of the same characteristics as Kolinsky, but not the same quality of performance.
Squirrel: Many times you need to visualize what each hair will look like to understand how it will perform. A squirrel hair brush is very absorbent, probably the most absorbent that you will find. It is also very soft, bordering on floppy. This is not an ideal brush for a nail artist. As a watercolorist, it may do the job of painting large washes of color.
Goat, Mongoose, Camel, Boar and Pony: Brushes are also made from the coats of a variety of other animals. Domesticated animals do not produce the same quality of brushes as those that are wild. Many of these are considered bristles instead of hair, because of the coarse, stiff quality and the ability to withstand harsher chemicals such as turpentine or special paint thinners used by an oil painter.
Blended
Why would you want a “blended” brush? A blended brush just means that the brush head is made from a blend of different kinds of hair. Blended brushes combine the softness, pointing capability and holding capacity of natural hair with the durability, spring and cost effective qualities of synthetics. A blended brush makes an excellent gel brush and often times a good addition to your nail art brush collection.
Summary
As almost all of us have experienced, Kolinsky sable brushes are some of the most expensive brushes that any artist can buy. Despite the expense, Kolinsky, as well as other sables, have many positive properties for creating art. For one, the unique shape that Mother Nature dons on a hair gives it the natural ability to make a beautiful point. Natural hairs of any kind are also more absorbent than fiber made in a laboratory. This means that your art brush made of sable will point better, and can carry liquid farther across the surface without recharging than other brushes made of other materials.
Check out the NSI collection of nail brushes.