Learn Calligraphy & Brush Painting

Four generations of traditional brush making have long survived in the Republic of China’s grand capital, the city of Taipei. Lam Sam Yick, our exclusive calligraphy and painting brush supplier, is a family owned company established a century ago. They are famous for their development of high quality brushes by using all natural products. Their number one top seller is the Wishing brush which has been in the making for the past 96 years. What distinguishes this family’s success in the brush making industry is locked in their secret technique of creating their brushes. Their system entails using an exact percentage of different hair types to create a perfect brush. These brushes present the calligraphy artist with higher quality by maintaining its original shape during and after usage, as well as allowing the artist different characteristic in their script. Pictured below you will see Master Lin assembling the very favored brush.

Wishing Brushes are sold exclusively by us outside of Taiwan.

• Wishing Brush No. 1 
• Wishing Brush No. 2 
• Wishing Brush No. 3

Figure 1. Materials for brush

Traditional calligraphy brushes are crafted by using all natural products. The shaft is crafted out of bamboo, the ferrule is composed of water buffalo horn and the brush hair is gathered using various types of animal hair like goat and weasel (traditionally known as wolf).

Figure 2. Goat hair

Figure 3. Goat hair

Master Lin begins by dampening goat hair with lime water. He then lines up the hair on a straight edge and evens it out on the flat surface. He continues to dampen hair with lime water while flattening it out.

Figure 4. Lining up goat hair

Figure 5. Lining up goat hair

Master Lin pulls the goat hair with a needle like tool and aligns the hair on one side of straight edge. He makes sure the hair is even. 

Figure 6. Master Lin aligning hair

Master Lin proceeds with this same process for all five layers of different brush hairs that will be used to create the special Wishing brush. He ends up with five different layers of hair in varying lengths. The heart of the brush is composed of weasel hair that will allow the brush to have greater flexibility. The outer layer is composed of goat hair.

Continue to Figure 7-12.