Japanese Gardens Maki-e brush set

I always need to spend time in gardens when I travel to Japan. It’s a precious moment where I can hit pause, disconnect, feel the serenity surrounding me and appreciate the moment. I feel happy there, calm and curious, I wonder why the garden has been set up in that particular way, beyond the aesthetic beauty. It’s obvious that Japanese Gardens are not randomly architected and that there is indeed a lot of thought behind each choice, each positioning and element.

Working with the artisans on these Holiday’s projects has allowed me to learn more about Japanese Gardens, and it completely changed the way I look at them today. It was already a delight to spend time in a garden, but being able to understand a little more about them makes the experience entirely different.

Today I would love to show you and also share all the details of this Japanese Gardens Maki-e brush set. There is a special brush holder planned for this Holiday that is also inspired by Japanese Gardens, it will be available at a later date as it’s still in the hands of the artisans. This maki-e set and the upcoming Holiday brush holder share the same theme, but not the same design.

THE JAPANESE GARDENS MAKI-E BRUSH SET

Before we talk about the handles and the brushes in this set, there is something that I want to share about the Maki-e collection.

You may be familiar with my previous Maki-e sets, there was the Sunset Cranes with black and red handles in December 2023, the Summer Koi with black and blue handles in June 2024, and now this Japanese Gardens with black and bronze handles is joining this series.

Initially, these 3 eye sets were planned to be launched together in December 2023, with the idea that you could choose the set that best fitted your application preferences and your taste. When we started to plan technically, and also financially, we faced several issues: the number of maki-e handles that we could make was limited, the availability of the materials was also very limited. For many reasons, it was not realistic. We had to split the sets, try to release them separately and see what was feasible as we moved on.

Even spacing and increasing the production of each set did not allow us to cover the demand for the Sunset Cranes or the Summer Koi, but it helped a lot to make it smoother at the launch and more achievable for the manufacturers. We didn’t know if or how this would exactly work out, but we are very happy that we were able to make this trio of maki-e sets.
Since the launch of the Sunset Cranes set, I have received many requests for face brushes with the same materials as the matching eye sets, I can confirm that there is indeed something in process.

If you have been collecting or using Fude for a long time, you probably already know what shapes or what materials you prefer and why. The 3 brushes in this Japanese Gardens set are my favorite shapes, paired with my favorite mix of materials: extremely soft saikoho goat and white canadian squirrel bristles. The way these bristles pick up and diffuse the product is outstanding, they release the product progressively and it’s seamlessly blended. The saikoho goat adds fullness and just the right stability and strength.

I think it’s wonderful to own essential brush shapes with different mixes or materials as they will allow us to play with nuances in the way the brushes perform, I hope this makes sense and gives you a little more insight on what was on my mind with these specific designs. We will dive into the details of each brush further down in this post.

THE HANDLES

This handle is the same shape and length as the ones in the previous maki-e sets and also the Traditions series. These are the most difficult handles to manufacture due to their curvy shape as they require a lot of time and effort from the woodworking artisans, time and effort are very expensive factors when it comes to craftsmanship. If you are just discovering my brushes, I need to mention it because this is something that makes us more unique in all our manufacturing processes.

Once the maple wood handles are shaped, sanded and ready, the wood is then coated several times and with different lacquers each time. We use a special technique that offers an optical depth in the finish and that can only be achieved using the most luxurious lacquers, this allows the bronze to peek through the black lacquer.

THE MAKI-E ILLUSTRATION

The bronze gradient that peeks through the black lacquer represents the light that reflects from the moon and the lantern, the lantern is lighting our way through the stepping stones.

Japanese Gardens is going to be the theme for this Holiday, both this set and the brush holder are inspired by them.
This design is the continuation of the Sunset Cranes, it’s getting dark, the cranes left and now the lanterns are on, the light reflects on the stepping stones and you can discover the gardens under a different perspective.

Showcasing such small details on the handles with the methods that the artisans use is a challenging process, it limits us in the colours and the choice of the elements that we wish to apply on them. For these handles, we added more details in comparison to the previous maki-e sets and the colours are red, gold and silver.

THE STEPPING STONES

I love to sit beside the ponds, observe the trees, the leaves, the rocks, the structure of the garden, but my favorite moment in a garden is when I find stepping stones. Paths in Japanese Gardens have a particular meaning, and stepping stones are an important element of a path, there is so much to read about them.

The reason I feature them here is because of the feeling of joy they evoke, and how they encourage me to be in the moment. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, we had no roads, only small trails and we had to cross many streams. Walking on stepping stones was something that I had to do on a daily basis, this left so many happy memories. Stepping stones are an important souvenir of my childhood that indirectly connects me to Japanese Gardens.

THE BRUSHES

There are 3 brushes in this eye set, a very pointy pencil, a builder, and a crease brush. The 3 brushes in this set are a mix of very soft saikoho goat bristles and white canadian squirrel bristles.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I wanted that some of the brushes across the 3 maki-e sets shared a similar shape, but with different materials so that they would offer a different experience. For a Fude lover, it’s interesting how similar brushes, bundled with a different type of bristles, can influence the application, and how they interact with the same products.

The brushes that share a similar shape across the sets are the following:

THE PENCIL BRUSH

This is a very pointy pencil, it was bundled with a mix of saikoho goat bristles and white canadian squirrel bristles.
Even though the tip has movement, it is very controllable and precise, even quite surgical in precision.

We can define the lash line, target the placement almost lash by lash. It works with the precision and feel of a synthetic eyeliner brush, but with the grip of a brush made for powders.

This pencil brush is truly amazing to define with extreme precision and if you want to use powder as eyeliner, it will be so effortless.

It offers a more sharp and neat placement in comparison to the Sunset Cranes pencil brush. They are both similar in shape, but because the tip of Sunset Cranes has more movement in comparison, the feel and control is slightly different.

Many of you requested the Pencil from the Sunset Cranes to come back and stay in the permanent collection. I know that many of you love it so much, but hopefully you will also love this version which is a little more determined in comparison, but still super soft.

THE BUILDER BRUSH

This builder has a side surface of approx 8mm (wide) x 9.5mm (height), this width combined with this length allow us to work comfortably on the entire mobile lid, but also to target the placement where needed, for example in the center of the lid or on the outer v. Since it is quite thick and has density, we have strength and flexibility to build the placement, and we can also use the tip for definition since this shape gives it so much stability.

Here are the three laydown brushes that were bundled with different materials depending on the maki-e set:

I will explain how these brushes differ from each other, and in which circumstances I would use one rather than another.

The volume, thickness and strength of each brush will vary depending on the type of natural bristles used, but this Japanese Gardens is my favorite laydown brush so far, and even ever. The size, shape and this mix make it so effortless with the products that I use the most for my day-to-day application.

The Summer Koi Kakishibu brush is the one I would rather pair with more difficult shadows or shimmers, because of the additional power in the bristles – which is quite important with the product pickup.
The Japanese Gardens is the one I would rather pair with matte shadows, specially if I am going to build or structure the outer v application with a dark shadow. Since it releases the product progressively, it allows to structure the placement smoothly so we can obtain an evenly placed and diffused outer v. It just gives us that extra time to work the product before the application is final. This means we are less likely to waste time blending, or less likely to overly blend and end up with an uneven result.

The Japanese Gardens laydown brush has more fluffiness and blending abilities in comparison to the Sunset Cranes one. In comparison, when applying a dark shadow with the Sunset Cranes laydown brush, which has only blue squirrel bristles, you may notice that it may release more of the product upon first contact, but it may also skip if the skin has movement, texture or wrinkles; the placement may need just a little more tuning in order to be diffused evenly. The Sunset Cranes laydown brush feels softer, but the Japanese Gardens laydown brush will release the product more gradually and blend it more effectively. I have noticed that with a mix of saikoho and white canadian squirrel bristles, the application tends to last longer or fade more evenly, this is probably because the application ends up being more evenly integrated onto the skin.

THE CREASE BRUSH

This crease brush has a beautiful fluffy shape, it combines the ideal balance between softness and strength. It has enough density for a generous pick up, but it’s still airy and diffuses the application so effortlessly.

When we need a bigger crease brush, there are quite a few options available that can do a great job, but I think that it’s more difficult to find a small crease brush that can work with precision, yet deliver a perfectly diffused result.
I am often aiming for designs that can save us time and effort and that’s where these brushes will truly stand out.

The Summer Koi is close to this crease brush in terms of design, it has the same ferrule and same length of bristles.

The Summer Koi has kakishibu saikoho goat bristles, which are a joy to work with. These persimmon dyed bristles have such a reliable grip on the product and they convert brushes into insane workhorses!

The nuance with these two is that the Japanese Gardens Crease brush will deliver a more diffused placement, the intensity is going to be more evenly distributed across the placement. The Summer Koi is going to deliver a more intense placement, concentrate that intensity a little more at the start of the placement and keep the intensity towards the center of the brush’s path.

The Japanese Gardens crease is a more forgiving brush, it releases the product more gradually as it blends, so if you love to use dark colors for example but are a little scared to handle them, this will be such a great tool to pair them with.

I also wanted to show you the TS3 brush from the Traditions Special series, they have a similar length of bristles, but the shape is denser, firmer at the top.
The TS3 is more of a blender type of brush, with a bigger and more powerful surface.

TECHNICAL SPECS

THE PACKAGING

Just like the two previous Maki-e set, this Japanese Gardens set also comes in a vertical wooden box crafted with paulownia.

You can see that the design has evolved and the box is also a little different than the previous two, but it has the same dimensions.
We started with just a washi paper around the box for the first Sunset Cranes set, then we were able to apply a black monochrome print on the front for the Summer Koi, and now on this box we have a color print and gold foil for the logo application.

Just like with the previous sets, this box can be repurposed as a mini brush holder. It’s not solid and sturdy like a walnut wooden brush holder would be, but it protects the brushes during transport and can be reused at home.

The brushes are wrapped in Japanese washi paper, neatly folded and secured with a Mizuhiki knot.

Every little detail in this set has been made in Japan. We love to showcase a variety of Japanese traditions in our packaging as it adds a special value to the set, and hopefully, you can also reuse them.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

We hope that you love how this set looks and what it offers in terms of functionality. I created this set with the idea that anyone can easily use it, whether you are a collector, or just recently discovered Fude!

This Japanese Gardens Maki-e set is limited edition, the price for the set is 159 USD. It will be available on Beautylish starting on the 12th of November 2024 at 10 am PT.