Brand name: Silver

Line name: 5025S Atelier Blended Squirrel Quill

Hair type: Blend, natural Squirrel and synthetic

Reviewed brush size #10

Atelier Squirrel blend quill has blended hair, synthetic and natural squirrel. It looks beautiful, but sadly does not hold point very well and it is more mop than a quill.

Silver is more well known from their Black velvet line, which is also blend. I got this quill in the hopes it would be similar. It is sadly not. Where silver black velvet points very nicely, this quill does not have point and is more like mop. Hair is also different from Silver Black velvet, which is really popular blended brush from Silver, but that lineup does not include quill.

I struggled with this brush a lot. I could get it to point by doing small rotation at the edge of my waterbucket. But it didn’t hold that point well nor long. Every time I painted, “the point” become wider and wider. Especially when brush got dryer, it started to become very floppy.

Stroke test

Test strokes show problem so well. Point does not hold, you can get it looking like a point, but when it touches the paper, it becomes flat. I noticed that 90 degree test was especially useful to show this.

Lines were not very fine and squiggly lines were even worse. Brush has drag when it needs to turn. These are the test for the tip and snap. Brush need the snap to keep it shape, this brush seriously lacks it.

Smooth tapering are really hard with this brush, it is really soft and even slight change of pressure changes dramatically the line width. There is really tiny window to operate and brush having no point makes it even worse.

Why this brush does not have point? It can be multiple reasons, hairs are too soft to return their original shape, or shape of the brush is rounded at the tip. Or both, like this case.

When I was doing test paintings, I noticed small hair pointing from tip of the brush, further than others. I pulled it out, and it was brush hair, not a dog hair. Quality brushes should never shed any hairs, even if they are new. This brush shed multiple hairs during test paintings and will probably shed more in future use.

Over all, I’m very disappointed in this brush, especially since my expectations on Silver was much higher, their Black velvet is very nice brush line, and this Atelier squirrel blend is just sad mop. Brush is marked as made in China.

Review video (Youtube)

Sizing:

Size available: 00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60

Sizing is similar than in round brushes and does not follow typical quill sizing. Size 60 is only 11 mm wide at brush base, and for example in Davinci quills it is size 4. That means there is not much difference between sizes and biggest size is small in quills.

But it seems that Jackson’s Art store has bigger size available than Silver website says, and their smallest size is 40, biggest being 120.

Hair properties:

Softness: Soft

Thirstiness: average

Individual hair width: Varies

Tapering hairs: Yes, some of them

Brush head color: Dark brown and black

Brush hairs fanned out and zoomed close. Some hairs are tapering, some are cut straight.

Since this is blend brush, there should be two different type of hairs at brush. Most of the hair is very fine tapering hair, but there is some thicker black hairs that do not have tapering. I suspect these are the synthetic hairs

General Quality:

Handle has unique coloring that looks like some type of staining. Printing is in gold, very small font. There is no lacquer, so printing might rub off at some point. There is little bit thicker area for holding.

What I’m bit sad, is that other side is printed bar code. It really pops up on dark brush and steals attention in bad way. I would hoped sticker, so I could have removed it, or more subtle bar code.

Ferule

Wire wrapping: tight

Has extra thread underneath: Not visible

Ferule is wrapper type, solid black. So unfortunately I cannot confirm the glue amount or under-threads. It is very neatly wrapped around and there is no kinks or bumps. Ends are cut cleanly, with small round offs. Wires are copper colored and very neatly tucked in straight line. Wires do not move, but the whole ferule rotates a bit.

Pricing at 2025:

Availability: Available, not limited edition

Jacksons (they seem to have bigger size available than Silver website suggest)

Artemiranda (EU-Spain)

Price at 2025:

#10 22.33€ (artemiranda)

It is expensive for it lack of quality in brush head, it is blended mop brush and their sizing being really small, makes the bigger sizes even worse in pricing.

Pros

Design is pretty

Cons

Sheds hairs

Not having point

Small sizing

Price

Recommended? NO

This is more like average mop than quill and quality of brush head is questionable due to shedding.

Silver: Atelier Squirrel Blend Quill