Making Your Own Paintbrushes

As an art student, buying my own brushes is expensive so I decided to make my own out of objects I had around my house.

Drill a hole into the object you are making your handle.  In this case, I am using an old set of chopsticks.  The hole needs to be big enough to fit the amount of hair/ bristles that you want but not too big that the handle breaks.

Once you have the hole drilled, use an exacto-knife to create a cross pattern in the area you just drilled.  The picture will explain it better then my words. (Sorry).

Select the amount of hair you want to use for the bristles. (I didn't want to cut too much off my head so I opted for a smaller finer brush.) Use a rubber band to keep the bristles all together while preparing the glue.

Glue the end of the bristles and place in the hole you drilled. Gently remove the rubber band after a few minutes. For my bigger grass brush and pen brush shown I left the rubber band on. It's up to you.

Use string to tighten the opening of the brush and to keep the bristles in.  glue the end of the string to keep it from unraveling.

Trim the bristles of the brush to the desired shape. There you have it.  Your very own brush.

I have re-modified a pen into a paintbrush using my husbands hair.
Below is the chopstick brush with my hair.
Finally my grass and twig brush.  Have fun making your own.