the watercolor brush i've had for 11 years that i would genuinely cry over if i lost it
ok this is going to sound ridiculous but i'm sitting here cleaning my brushes after finishing a piece and i got genuinely emotional over my old escoda. i've had this one brush since my second year of undergrad, it's a size 10 travel brush, the handle is all chewed up because i was a nervous student who bit her brushes (gross i know but i was 19 and stressed), the ferrule is slightly loose, and i've rewarped the bristles like three times with my mouth after bad cleaning habits. but it still holds a point better than any new brush i own. i literally cannot paint without it.
i dropped it once in 2018 and my heart stopped for a second.
i know brushes are technically replaceable and there's this whole "don't get attached to tools" mentality in art but like. NO. i AM attached. this thing has been through every single painting i've ever been proud of. it was in my hand when i painted my dad's portrait the year he died. it came with me to every shitty shared studio i've ever had. it's survived three moves and a minor flood.
my partner bought me a fancy new escoda for christmas and i keep it in the wrapper because i'm scared to use it. i don't want to replace my old one. it's not the same.
anyone else have that one tool that's basically a part of them at this point
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Ah sure that's not ridiculous at all, that's the whole game right there. I've a wee wooden roller I've had maybe fifteen years, the handle's held together with电工 tape at this stage and the rubber's gone hard on one end, but it lays ink flatter than any new one I've bought since. You can't explain it to someone who doesn't make things, they look at you like you've two heads, but that brush knows your hand and you know it. Eleven years is a good run. I'd say if it ever does go, you'll feel it in your bones for a week.
That chewed handle though 😂 fair play, I've seen students do worse. At least you weren't dipping it in your tea.
The chewed handle tells the story better than a pristine one could. I've got a bone folder I've had since art school, it's got a chip out of one edge and it's still the one I reach for every time. Something about having worn it in with your own bad habits, it's like the tool learned you as much as you learned the tool.