Making a Series 7 kolinsky sable
watercolor brush isn't easy.
The largest-size brush can take
almost a week and a half to make.
You can pick up a cheap, synthetic
brush for under $2,
but a Series 7 could cost you over $300.
So why would anyone pay for a brush
that costs over 100 times the price?
Originally created on the request
of Queen Victoria, the Series 7 brush
was first made in 1866
and was designed to be the
finest possible brush for watercolor painting.
Since then, the skill and craftsmanship
that goes into making each one of these brushes
has remained exactly the same.
To achieve this, the company needed
skilled brush makers.
And so, in 1946, set up a new factory
in Lowestoft, England,
a fishing town with a history of rope making.
This factory now makes over
25 million brushes a year.
The intricate work and dexterity
required means that these brushes
are almost exclusively made by women.
It takes three years to train,
and there are only nine brush makers
in the world that can make these
top-of-the-range Series 7 brushes.
Sandra Harris: I joined here when I was 16.
I worked 18 years,
and I had 12 years off, and I've been back 11,
so that's 28 years I've been working
for the company.
When you first start, you would
probably only make a few.
You've got to get, like anything,
you've got a skill and you build on that,
and you get to learn the skill,
and then you get to do the speed.
Narrator: The components play a big part
in the cost.
Each brush head is made from kolinsky sable,
a Siberian weasel that's hair is said to cost
three times the price of gold by weight.
These weasels are hunted sustainably
every spring under CITES guidelines
across Siberia and Manchuria.
Only guard hairs from the tail will do.
Kolinsky hairs are chosen because
every single strand has a surface of
directional, interlocking scales,
increasing the surface area and giving
the hairs their strength.
And while many other natural and synthetic
hairs are used for brushes,
nothing has quite matched
the quality of sable.
Once the hairs are cleaned and graded,
it's time to start making the brush.
The wool has to be removed with a comb,
and the hairs are packaged up
and carefully boiled and ironed.
The brushes have to be made with hair
at its natural length.
And the skilled brush makers can
effortlessly separate between
28- and 32-millimeter-length hairs
just with their hands.
This skill takes years of training and practice.
The nine brush makers each have 27 years
of experience, on average.
Hairs that are blunt or twisted
have to be discarded.
And most importantly,
as each natural hair comes to a point,
every hair must be the correct way up.
The removed upside-down hairs
can be flipped and reused.
Every single hair is checked over by hand.
The smallest-brush-size hairs
are just 7 millimeters long,
shorter than an average eyelash.
Shane Buckingham: We can't afford to let
standards drop in any way, shape, or form.
What I would say from that is
what this factory has is hand skills.
It has individual skills.
It has skills that,
when I have new people come in here,
they don't sometimes believe
that this kind of work still happens.
We show them what people do,
they will turn round and say,
"I'll never be able to do that."
But they will be able to do that
if they understand that quality comes first.
Narrator: When the hairs are all sorted,
they're ready to go into the cannon.
The bundle is tied together
and gently twisted through.
Individual hairs are added or taken away
until it's an exact fit.
Buckingham: They need to have that fine point
to work with, that, basically,
it has that color-carrying capacity.
That the brush won't split or do anything
that it shouldn't do, basically.
Through the hair that we use,
through the skills of our makers
and how they make them,
we've done everything we possibly can
to make sure that we have produced
the best product we possibly can.
Narrator: Then, it's time to attach
the handles.
The factory uses birch wood handles
imported from Italy.
The brush is glued into place, and then
the brush heads are crimped onto the handles.
This crimping process bends the metal
to shape and keeps the handle
tightly attached to the brush.
Once the paintbrush is assembled,
it needs to be branded and tested.
The size and logo of each brush
is stamped in gold on the handle.
Wet-point testing assures that everything
works exactly as expected
and there aren't any loose or crooked hairs.
Each brush is then gummed, a process
that gives the brush head its final shape
and allows it to bounce back.
The shape of the natural hairs
gives the brush a wide belly
and a fine point.
Mark Brindle: So, the key to our brush making
is the people.
And that is the skill.
We retain knowledge
from generation to generation.
So, we have makers now that are working
under an apprenticeship of
a 49-year-served brush maker,
who himself had an apprenticeship under
another 49-year-serving brush maker,
who was brought into the business
under his father, who made brushes
directly for Queen Victoria.
And it's very key that we retain
that knowledge throughout the business,
generation to generation, and we are now
bringing in the next generation to make sure
that we uphold the very high-quality
standards that we base ourselves on.