pira

I was belly aching because I didn't have a brush smaller than 18/0 for working on my dolls.

I asked my father (the artist) if he could in passing the artstore out in his neck of the woods, check to see if they had any 20/0 or better yet 30/0 liners. I'd checked online but know full well their site doesn't always list all the items in their bricks & morter shop.

He was all *0__0?? WTF is a 30/0 brush...do they make them that small??*

... I would get a lot of that over the next 48 hours.

My parents arrive on Monday for a visit and my father presents me with the smallest thing available in the artshop.

Size = 0.

As I handed over $ for a brush that was HUGE compared to what I was looking for and being told that there is no standardization to sizing I was chewing my tongue to the root thinking:

1) Yeah there probably is....but you ARTISTS have never encountered something this small. No seriously...artists and hobbiest obviously inhabit two entirely seperate planes of existence.

2) If the answer was NO to 20/0 or 30/0 ...why did you you buy something about 8 sizes bigger just because it was the smallest in the shop?

....probably because he really didn't know just how small I'm gunning for.

I showed him the 18/0 available at Micheals (and had to wonder how the HELL Micheals has something Curry's doesn't) ... and I explained my dilemma of finding something smaller in Canada. He pronounced it very small and I told him...I wanted WAY smaller.

We then brainstormed buying a used sable or mink wrap and making brushes our selves.....no seriously I am going to pluck a few hairs from my mother's mink collar and try this.

Online I was advised by another Canuck (who collects dolls AND is an artist) that I could go to an online hobby site for the type I was searching out. I crunched the numbers on the Canuck site:

$12.95 + 13% tax = $14.63 + $9.50 shipping + $5.00 handling on orders under $35 before tx = $29.13

And it's not in stock.

Now I KNOW I can purchase it from Junkyspot as Emory has it in stock and with shipping & currency crunching it would cost $18.44 CND.

Again...WTF!? $10 more to buy it IN country.

So on her suggestion I started calling around ALL the hobby shops within a close driving distance ...and the best they can do is 10/0.

They are all...30/0?! WTF?! They make them that small?! I must be wrong...no one makes brushes that small.

*head desk*

I was also informed at one place I frequent that hobbiests don't use brushes that small so they have no plans to try and track any down.

*0__o...who the f**k DOES then if they actually make them?! MICE!???????

I was FURIOUS with the hobby place I first checked and questioned if they actually made such things because they also refused to order MSC because no one else wants it but me (BUT I'LL BUY A CASE YOU ASSBLEEPS!) NOR did they call me when my epoxy order arrived ~ instead just stuck it all on the shelf.

Gentlemen ~ YOU BE MORONS OF THE HIGHEST ORDER and if I never have to buy another pack of pokemon cards from you again for my son, it will not be soon enough!

So.... finally I start working through the SHORT list of rinky dink art shops in town and FINALLY come across one that sells at the very least 4 kinds of 20/0. ...with nice SHORT handles I might add..and I got all of them for less than it would have cost me to buy the one 30/0 online from the Canuck dealer.

I was stunned and then over the moon thrilled. I will STILL order the 30/0 from Junkyspot and bundle with with other items when they come in, but for now I am content with my microbrushes.

However my opinion of local SEXIST hobby shops is in the toilet right now.