During the years that I was actively
carving, my wife frequently observed that I appeared to be more of a tool
collector than a carver. She was referring to the long line of gouges and
chisels sitting in their racks along the back of my workbench. These
are supplemented by pyrographic burners, Foredom grinders, belt and disc sharpeners,
not to mention steel-reinforced gloves and headset magnifiers. And a pile of
wood waiting to be carved. (I gave away most of my wood supplies to fellow carvers at the Ontario Woodcarvers Association) OWCA
She probably had a point, although, to be
fair, I did produce a fair quantity of work. All of these tools are now probably
waiting for a grandchild to express an interest. I don’t think I could bear to
part with them otherwise.
Unless you have an offer in mind.
When I took up painting, I simply switched
my allegiance from tool shops to art supply houses. Not knowing any better, I
bought numerous inexpensive brushes of various sizes, mainly quite small, and a
number of different palettes. As to paint and paper, I bought whatever was on
sale.
When I check my inventory now, I can count
about 40 brushes, 8 palettes (one of which I actually sold, then wished I hadn’t),
a wide range of DaVinci tube paints, with a few Winsor&Newton and Holbein special
colours, and an entire panoply of supporting equipment. Among the latter is a
lighting equipment set-up for photographing my work, a brand new SLR camera
ditto, a Logan mat cutter, tripod with plein air support, backpack with
built-in stool, shelves of frames and matboard and a substantial supply of quality
paper. Did I mention books and DVDs? And then there’s the acrylic supplies that
I haven’t really got started on.
As with the carving tools, I really only
use about 6 or 8 of the brushes that I own. Of course, this is the result of
learning on the go. Many of the brushes I bought are either too specialized
(e.g.: a fan brush!) or really of poor quality. I had to swallow hard when I
bought my first brush worth over $50 – a 1.5-inch Robert Simmons flat – but what
a delight to use. The same with my two round sables from AboveGround –
excellent value, incidentally.
What’s next? Well, three of my favourite
painters swear by the Davinci Mops made from Russian blue squirrel hair. So
stay tuned. In my next post, I'll ruminate on specific pieces of equipment.
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