Ohn Mar Win and her story

Ohn Mar’s discovery of watercolours started around 10 years ago after she received a small sketchbook for her birthday. Although starting off messy, her determination and drive meant that Ohn Mar practiced on every day items all around her- from marmite jars to fruits and veg. This humble beginning grew into confidence with watercolour painting and allowed Ohn Mar to find a career in food illustration.

But Ohn Mar’s passion didn’t stop there, she pulls inspiration from a huge array of subjects whether it’s urban landscapes or floral settings. This has paved the way for a growing social media presence and in depth classes that teach others her craft. Ohn Mar’s approach to teaching watercolours is genuine and authentic, having been through her audience’s struggles. As a result, her courses focus on practical and hands-on approaches that help students explore their creativity through experimentation and growing confidence.

Hair mixing and making bespoke heads

As a traditional brush, Quill brushes are one of the most hands-on paintbrushes to manufacture. The mix of natural and synthetic hair make them very difficult to machine mix and so need to be layered by hand. Our skilled brush makers will layer and mix the hair until they feel it’s properly textured.

Once mixed, our head maker will pick the right amount of hair for the size of the ferrule. This then needs to be tied and hand dipped into glue in order to secure the fibres in place. The string is then removed to allow the head to be secured to the handle in its finished form.

Finally, a pre-rounded ferrule is wrapped around the head and handle and tied by hand using a copper wire. This needs to be tight enough to secure the head properly but not too tight as to restrict its colour holding ability

Finishing the heads

Once the heads have been made, they need to be properly shaped and prepped ready for both transport and the artist the use. To do this, the hair is carefully treated by using boiling water and shaped by our team. This ensures that the point is as sharp as possible and returns to its shape once used. We then use a gum Arabic to fix the shape in place- this, along with a small plastic cap, ensures that the delicate fibres remain intact during shipping

Once you have your brushes, gently remove the gum by breaking it up with your fingers. You’ll need to do this quite a lot with mop brushes as their absorbent mature will hold a lot of the Gum!