DIY TRAVEL (POCKET) WATERCOLOR BRUSHES

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN WATERCOLOR BRUSHES DIY

In the past few years, I realized that the need for smaller (pocket) size watercolor brushes has risen dramatically. Not only because they are excellent to take with you on the road, but also because they take a lot less space in your pencils case and, for that matter, they can actually fit into your pencil case.

However, if you start looking for those types of brushes, you will notice that the prices, as well as the selection, are not as attractive as you might have thought. So, to make my life easier, I decided to take a few brushes of my own and see what I could do with them to make them more portable since I have my travel watercolor palettes in miniature and on the go ready at all times.

There are two ways I figured out that would work well for me.

THE FIRST METHOD - is the simplest of all.

I took a few good quality but used (1-year-old) proven brushes that I like and trust and simply cut off the wooden handle to fit the size of my pencils case. Quickly mention here, that my tiny pencil case is nothing other than a small makeup brush holder. I really like it because it is super flat and takes very little space.

YES, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE SPACE!

Using my trusted Dremel tool I used 2 attachments. one is a cutting disc, the second one is for sanding the wooden edges. To make the ends of my brushes look attractive and not causing me any splinters I painted with champagne gold acrylic paint.

They fit into my makeup, aka travel brush pouch, perfectly!

Another tip for you if you place all of your brushes together and not into separate brush holders - use a tip of a thick straw to use as a brush cap, so you protectthe bristle from bending.

In the photo below, you can see regular size watercolor brushes before I trimmed them.
They didn't fit in any of my travel pen holders.

SECOND METHOD 

Try to locate a cosmetic brush with a cap. Quite often you can find those online. The type of brush that normally comes with a metal cap is the one you might use for lips or nails. Use the casing of that brush to replace it with the watercolor one. 

I even managed to use sizes 8 and 10 (which normally have quite a thick handle) to make my own watercolor pocket brushes well suited for traveling.

This container sometimes has glue that can be losened if your place the back end of the brush into hot water with detergent. It will soften the glue and you may be able to pull out the cosmetic brush. Now you are left with a perfect travel brush container with a cap!

This time, after cutting the brushes to size, I used a cylinder sanding tip for my rotary tool
to sand off the excess wood. Take your time doing this and check with the brush's
container in order to be able to fit the end into it. It worked much better than I thought!

Add either super glue, Gorilla glue, E600, etc., and VOILA!

The perfect travel brush.

Give it a try and let me know if this worked for you!

HAPPY PAINTING! Elena

www.ElenaArtPages.com