My mullet started to get out of hand, and I felt that the time had come to cut it off. As my hair dresser (yes, I enjoy the experience of other people cutting my hair) cut it she jokingly asked me if I wanted to save a bit of it for magic or something. I remembered that I’ve wanted to make a paintbrush for making Rewild Camp name tags for some time now, and so I said “YES!”

I’ve had the lock of hair pinned to my bulliten board in my room for a few days. I mentioned to my friend Leslie that I planned to write a blog about making the brush out of my hair and she told me she had already done that! My blog sounds sooo 2 years ago. She sort of seems like the cooler, female version of myself, only on the east coast… hey, wait a second… why do I have this overwhelming sense of deja vu? Her hair paint-brush, poke weed berry dye paintings look totally awesome! Check them out:

1. Nature DIY Part 2: Cat & Human Hair Paint Brush
2. Eco Art: DIY Paint Brush (For Kids and Adult Artists)

The tuft o’ my mullet:

I found a hazel sapling and carved it down a bit making a thin flat tip.

I made a backup brush out of a dead hazelnut in case the green one shrinks.

I dissolved the hide glue chips in water, turning it back into glue.

Then I wet some sinew in my mouth and wrapped some hair onto the hazelnut stick.

I dipped a stick into the glue-water and dabbed it onto the sinew wrapped around the hair. When it dried I cut off the excess hair on both sides, making an even brush on the tip.

I went home and painted a bit with some water colors my roommate had lying around.

I saw a downy woodpecker today at Rewild Camp. This bird has a special significance to me, and I felt that seeing it at Rewild Camp meant good things. So I painted a picture of one.

The mullet brush worked very well! Finally I can start learning to paint. I think I might do a lot more painting now… Especially if Leslie shows me how to make some milk paint!

Show your support and appreciation for Urban Scout

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.