From Mullet to Monet
My mullet started to get out of hand, and I felt that the time had come to cut it off. As my hair dresser (yes, I enjoy the experience of other people cutting my hair) cut it she jokingly asked me if I wanted to save a bit of it for magic or something. I remembered that I’ve wanted to make a paintbrush for making Rewild Camp name tags for some time now, and so I said “YES!”
I’ve had the lock of hair pinned to my bulliten board in my room for a few days. I mentioned to my friend Leslie that I planned to write a blog about making the brush out of my hair and she told me she had already done that! My blog sounds sooo 2 years ago. She sort of seems like the cooler, female version of myself, only on the east coast… hey, wait a second… why do I have this overwhelming sense of deja vu? Her hair paint-brush, poke weed berry dye paintings look totally awesome! Check them out:
1. Nature DIY Part 2: Cat & Human Hair Paint Brush
2. Eco Art: DIY Paint Brush (For Kids and Adult Artists)
The tuft o’ my mullet:
I found a hazel sapling and carved it down a bit making a thin flat tip.
I made a backup brush out of a dead hazelnut in case the green one shrinks.
I dissolved the hide glue chips in water, turning it back into glue.
Then I wet some sinew in my mouth and wrapped some hair onto the hazelnut stick.
I dipped a stick into the glue-water and dabbed it onto the sinew wrapped around the hair. When it dried I cut off the excess hair on both sides, making an even brush on the tip.
I went home and painted a bit with some water colors my roommate had lying around.
I saw a downy woodpecker today at Rewild Camp. This bird has a special significance to me, and I felt that seeing it at Rewild Camp meant good things. So I painted a picture of one.
The mullet brush worked very well! Finally I can start learning to paint. I think I might do a lot more painting now… Especially if Leslie shows me how to make some milk paint!
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Mullet: better on the plate than the head
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im rying to figure out how you can be so consistantly brilliant.
Love how you created a paintbrush from the trimming of your mullet. Even moreso, I love the painting of the sweet little downy.
Thank you Scout, for sharing, yet another truly amazing day of your life!
Sweet painting! I like the strokes that brush makes. I read the link to the older post about the woodpecker. I used to think the woodpeckers I was seeing here were downy woodpeckers too, but I guess not. I’ve been debating whether to get a haircut lately, but now I will just so I can make some brushes to paint with.
Sweet, that’s one way to use excess hair! I doubt it works well with curly hair though…
I’m curious to know – how did the brush clean up after painting?
Don’t see why cleanup would be a big deal. A lot of the pro artist paintbrushes are made with animal hair. Same thing, although different hairs have different qualities to them.