Jackson’s Icon Quill brushes

I had a look at the Jackson’s Icon brushes because my colleague Bonny had recently discovered this is her new favourite brush. A mix of tradition and modern technology, Jackson’s Icon brushes are a blend of sable hairs and Micro-Synthetic fibres. They have beautiful points and full bellies for holding lots of watercolour paint, ink or water.

Jackson’s Icon Quill Watercolour Brushes – the Sizes

Jackson’s Icon Sable Synthetic Mix Series 777 Quill Round Brushes
are available in six sizes from size 10/0 (which stands for 0000000000) to size 6. Until I looked at them I thought that it was a range of very small brushes. But the sizing on these is special to quill brushes. They are much larger than the same sizes in round brushes. The largest size – the size 6 – is similar to a 12 or 14 in a regular round watercolour brush. So then the range of sizes makes more sense, they aren’t all really small – it is more like size 2 to 14 in a regular round brush range. The actual measurements for the brushes are listed on the description page of each brush.

Jacksons Icon Quill brushes size 6 and size 10/0 with a standard pencil for scale

More info about these fantastic brushes

These natural wood handled quill brushes will give you precision control, high colour holding capacity with a feel like sable with a bit more spring.

A mix of tradition and modern technology, these brushes represent the advancements of science combined with the classic needs of the traditional water colour artist. The uniqueness of the Micro-Synthetic fibre is two fold. Firstly the fibres are treated to produce millions of tiny indentations. This increases the surface area of the hairs allowing a much greater colour holding capacity for the brush. The hairs are then treated with a special process that frees the micro-synthetic fibres of any static electricity which makes brush fibres stick together. After which the hairs can smoothly and precisely react to any kind of stroke, either delicate or abrupt. By then mixing natural sable hairs we create a brush that behaves like a pure sable but with more spring and durability and at a fraction of the price.

A synthetic quill is used for the ferrule of the brush, instead of a natural feather quill, and then wires are bound around it to hold it to the handle.

Click on the underlined link to go to the Jackson’s Icon Sable & Synthetic Mix Brushes on the jacksonsart.com website.
Brush-only orders over £20 have free worldwide shipping.