Your Tools

I may start to sound like a broken record but I can’t help it!

In January I wrote a blog post titled Buying Things and it was all about how to go about buying the right tools. This is something I think about a lot because I teach a ton of classes that include processing wool from raw fleece and I see how some people have tools that don’t fit them or they don’t work for what they wanted them to do.

One of the examples I use in class about buying good tools is Crayons. You know those crayons you can buy at the dollar store that when you try to color with them there is very little pigment and a ton of wax and if you just spend a tiny bit more money you can get the name brand ones that color beautifully. The result is worth the extra investment even if you are only buying them for your kids to scribble with.

Well, I broke my own rule.

I decided I wanted to learn how to do water color washes for backgrounds in my journal (you can read about my Journal Journey here). So I went to the craft store and I bought a couple of water color palletes and I started looking at brushes. I first had 3 brushes in my hand that I knew would work but the total cost for the three brushes would have been $20. But! There on the end cap there was a display and there was a set of 8 brushed for $8! Three of the brushes in the package were the same shape as the three in my hand so I went for it.

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See all those dark fuzzy bits? Those are the brush fibers that were falling out of the brush as I put the paint on the paper. And that brush is still not done shedding.

Now. I have spent $8 on tools that suck and I will need to go back and spend the $20 on the better brushes.

See what I mean? Buying the better brushes in the first place would have saved me almost 30% of what I will spend in the end because I didn’t follow my own advice.

I’m sure I’ll be back here in six months to talk about tools again. In the mean time, buy the best tools you can afford and save money in the long run!

4 replies
  1. Karrie
    Karrie says:

    I have purchased those same brushes!!! U.S. They are awful. I use them for doing big washes of colour and I have very good brushes for more detailed work. Yes I bought the cheap ones first.

    Reply

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