Calligraphy Brushes

Huzhou is known for it's textiles.  Specifically children's clothing.  But it is famous for its handmade calligraphy brushes.  They are famous throughout China and used by many famous artists and leaders around China.  We watched a British documentary about the Huzhou Brush Factory here in Huzhou one day and decided that we needed to go check this place out.  Kyle wanted his picture taken with the 'Master' :)

So one weekend we finally arranged everything and took a tour of the factory.  It is about an hour from our house and it was a Sunday so most of the people were not working but we still go to see most of the process.

The Factory

 The girls checking out the goats.  They use goat hair, rabbit hair and weasel hair.  Their are also specialty brushes made from all kinds of other hair.

 The Master, he started working in this factory when he was 14 years old.

 His work area

Kyle got his picture!  He sold us a set of brushes that he had handmade from start to finish.  We found out later that they are not supposed to sell their own brushes because it takes away from the profit of the store that is outside the factory.  Kyle evidently can be very persuasive :)

 They carved the bamboo handles in this room.  Some are made with bamboo, some with flower bamboo, some with the horns of different animals, and some with different kinds of hard wood.

 The Master explaining to our friend Sean how they do the process of selecting the hairs.

 Workstations

 Ladies putting glue into the brushes to make the stiff.

Making the brushes.

 The girls got a little bored, but they found some birds in a cage which proved to be super entertaining!

 More workstations

This lady adds some wax at the bottom of the hair so each clump stays together

 This guy puts each hair clump into the bamboo handles

 This guy is separating the hair and pulling out the individual unacceptable hairs

 They opened up the museum for us and this brush is made with horse hair, it was amazing!

 They teach people how to do calligraphy here, or let them try different brushes to see which one they want to buy.

This is a display in the gift shop showing some of the different size brushes that they make.  They had all kinds, from the everyday brush to very special and expensive brushes.  It was a cool experience.  Totally fascinating to watch them put the brushes together.