Rosemary & Co. Brushes

[72moonglum]

So just yesterday, after ordering them Tuesday night from England, received this package of Rosemary & Co. brushes. They came very nicely packed together as seen, and in a cardboard support wrapped by rubber bands.  Very nicely arrived, and considering it took from Tuesday to Friday to get from the UK to Omaha, Nebraska I was extremely impressed. Apparently there were no issues getting the brushes through customs.  These brushes are their series 33, Kolinsky sable brushes, hopefully in every way just as good as the Winsor & Newtons I've been using now for a few years.

 

I haven't had a chance to yet actually use them, but as I do, I'll report my impressions sometime in the near future.

Edited October 4, 2014 by 72moonglum

[72moonglum]

And now on to the size comparison.  I bought sizes:

1

2

3

4

5

 

which can be seen in this attached photo, larger sizes moving away from the ruler. 

 

This is just the most basic size comparison.

 

The order came with a catalogue, and the catalogue refers to the fact that the photos therein actually represent the correct sizes of the brush, for all these brushes received, I checked them against the catalogue photos and found it for the most part correct. The number one brush was maybe a millimeter or so longer than the photo itself.

Edited October 4, 2014 by 72moonglum

[72moonglum]

And now on to a bit more size comparison.  The first photo shows size reference compared to currencies:

 

A two Dollar Canadian coin (sorry Canadians, only coin I could find besides a nickel)

A Mexican Peso

US Quarter

One Euro

Human molar (goblin currency)

 

In the next photo, a bottle of Reaper Master Series paint, once again accompanied by the molar.

Edited October 4, 2014 by 72moonglum

[MissMelons]

...is that a tooth...

[72moonglum]

Not just any tooth, one of my old wisdom teeth, lost that one, lost a bit of wisdom. Who doesn't keep their old wisdom teeth/goblin currency together with their old coin collections of days gone by when one used to travel?

Edited October 4, 2014 by 72moonglum

[ShadowRaven]

my wisdom teeth where drilled out and shattered. Never had a chance to keep 'em. From the loks of theese though, I am thinking the 1 and maybe a 0 are what I want to order first.

[72moonglum]

With this all, I should probably mention too the costs.

 

In US Dollars, I paid:

size 1-5.00

size 2-5.13

size 3-5.81

size 4-6.42

size 5-7.77

 

I got two size two's and two size three's, the super duper speedy shipping was 17.07 (as opposed to normal approximately 10-day shipping which was around 11.00 USD), so the whole order came out to be 58.15 USD.

 

So in a way it kind of feels expensive, but really, compared to the Winsor and Newton prices I've seen and their scarcity I don't really think they were that bad.  The real test is going to lie in their durability, so as I begin to actually use them I'll try to report back and tell you all how they work.  I think I'm going to get probably more use out of the bigger brushes and reserve the number one for eyes and such.  We'll see...

[72moonglum]

Not to go off on a tangent, but isn't life itself just full of non-related tangents coming together, I had my wisdom teeth wrenched from my head while I lived in Mexico by two little Mexican dentist ladies, who also broke the absolute snot out of three of them.  This was the only one that survived the wisdom tooth purge from my skull.

[LittleBluberry]

For those (like me) who prefer slightly shorter bristles, the 0 and 2/0 from that same line are quite a bit shorter.  (I've got 1, 0 & 2/0.). I've been meaning to buy myself a larger one, we've been enjoying the 2 sets we got last year.  (We don't do a ton of painting, but the fact that 6 brushes all showed up perfect was impressive compared to the double-pointing W&N I got off Amazon.)

[Carnacki the Ghost Finder]

I tried painting miniatures with my wisdom teeth once. 

[72moonglum]

So while finishing my female mage I just posted I did end up using a couple of the Rosemary and Company brushes.  I can't yet say anything too much about durability, because I've only used them for a single figure as of this moment, but I must say I did indeed enjoy using the brushes themselves.  I used the number five, the largest one, when I painted the base, and it performed very nicely, filled up on paint really well, and maintained a decent point for when I was painting the edge of the base and around the feet. 

 

I used the number three, which was a tad smaller than my Winsor series 7 # 2 for general and detail work and it also worked really nicely, maintaining its point.  I also used the number one, which was a long and thin brush that ended up being very good for detail work and dark lining between clothes and skin for example.  I could see using that one for free hand or detail work very easily, in my case probably for a shield or something like that. 

 

Overall, very impressed and am hoping they last a good long time.  I always rinse them out after each use, but maybe tonight I'll stick them in some pink soap for a bit of love and care.

[brushmistress]

Just a quick note to say that I love R&C brushes. I use the Series 33 size 0 brushes pretty much exclusively at this point. I have a R&C sable filbert for basecoating larger figs. They hold up wonderfully, and I can say that the less soap you use on them, the longer they last. I rinse with water routinely, and wash them with soap once a week. One brush will yield a couple hundred hours of paint time for me if I don't accidentally dip them in superglue (which happens more often than I'd care to admit!). After that they become gloss coat or priming brushes.

[72moonglum]

Yeah, after finishing the mage chick I was working on, I'm continuing my use of my Rosemary brushes, and I'm really liking them so far. I've been using the size five to do base coats on a large figure and it's working fine too.

Edited October 23, 2014 by 72moonglum

[fanguad]

I picked up R&C brushes at brushmistress's suggestion (I took one of her classes at RC'13).  I have a 0 and 1, and they are my workhorse brushes.

[ShadowRaven]

I am placing an order when I get paid again, next week. a 0 a 1 and one of the badger hair brushes for a base coat brush.