deivam PMR: GK

squirrel brush making squirrel brush production Squriel Anil

The squirrels of Rajasthan resemble American chipmunks. The fine brushes used by Rajasthani painters are made from the delicate, curved hairs of squirrels' tails.

First, the artists have to catch the squirrels. They wait until the warm weather arrives in the spring, since the small animals wrap their tails around themselves like a shawl to keep warm in the winter. Nobody wants the squirrels to catch cold because their tails have been shorn!

Some flour mixed with spicy oil is placed under a basket. The basket is propped up with a stick to which a long string has been tied. When the squirrel goes under the basket to investigate the enticing odour, the string is jerked and the animal is trapped. Catching squirrels is a task that Nathadwara boys especially enjoy!

The most difficult part of the operation is catching hold of the squirrel with a cloth that is flung over the basket.

Caution is in order, since the little creatures can really bite.

Once he has been immobilised, the squirrel's tail hairs are carefully trimmed and dropped into paper sleeves in "brush-sized" tufts.

Now the squirrel's once-bushy tail looks like the hairless tail of a rat! He'll stay cooler in the summer without his "shawl."

Squirrel Brushes have great carrying capacity for thin watercolors and inks. They are used in both lettering and washes. A very fine, thin hair, taken from squirrel tails, squirrel hair points as well as Kolinsky, but has very little "snap" because the hair is not very resilient. Both the Quill, a lettering brush, and the Oval Mop, a watercolor wash brush, are traditionally made with squirrel hair.

Gray squirrel (Talayoutky) and blue squirrel, most highly in demand for lettering brushes and quills, are native to Russia and are nearly always in short supply. Brown squirrel (Kazan) is more readily available, and is used mainly for watercolor brushes. Goat hair, harvested from domesticated animals, makes an economical alternative to the squirrel mop brush, for those concerned about the trapping of wild animals.