Types
Brushes differ greatly in terms of size, texture, material and cost.
- Stalk: Usually normal bamboo, exotic brushes instead may use materials like gold, silver, jade, ivory, red sandalwood or spotted bamboo.
- Hairs source: Normally the brush is made from goat, Siberian Weasel (黄鼠狼 huángshǔláng, Yellow-rat-wolf), pig, mouse, buffalo, wolf and rabbit hair, while exotic ones can be made from tiger, fowl, deer and even human hair (from the first haircut a baby gets, said to bring good fortune while taking the Imperial examinations).
- Hairs texture: soft (軟毫 ruǎnháo), mixed (兼毫 jiānháo) or hard (硬毫 yìngháo) hairs. Certain textures are better for writing certain styles than others are.
- Hairs size: Generally classified as either big (大楷 dàkǎi), medium (中楷 zhōngkǎi) or small (小楷 xiǎokǎi); most calligraphy is written with a medium-sized brush. The smallest brushes are used for very small pieces and for fashioning designs for seals. Medium brushes are the most widely used; wielded by a skilled artist, a medium brush can produce a variety of thicknesses of line, from very thin to fairly thick. The largest brushes are used only for very large pieces.
The hairs one chooses to use depends on one's needs at the moment, certain kinds of brushes are more suited to certain script styles and individuals than others are. Synthetic hair is not used. Prices vary greatly depending on the quality of the brush, cheap brushes cost less than a US dollar while expensive can cost more than a thousand. Currently, the finest brushes are made in the town of Shanlian, in the district of Huzhou, Zhejiang province.
Read more about this topic: Ink Brush
Famous quotes containing the word types:
“The bourgeoisie loves so-called “positive” types and novels with happy endings since they lull one into thinking that it is fine to simultaneously acquire capital and maintain one’s innocence, to be a beast and still be happy.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn’t make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting—the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“The American man is a very simple and cheap mechanism. The American woman I find a complicated and expensive one. Contrasts of feminine types are possible. I am not absolutely sure that there is more than one American man.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)