Handmade in Kolkata: A Note from the Stationerie Workshop
Welcome to the Stationerie Journal — a place to share what happens behind our brushes, a few picks for your studio, and the occasional tip to help your work. If you paint, letter, sculpt or sketch, you are in the right place.
Every brush starts as raw hair and a length of wood
Stationerie brushes are not ordered from a catalogue and rebranded. They are made by hand in our Kolkata workshop by a team of more than sixty artisan brushmakers — people who have spent years learning how to dress a tip so it holds a point, snaps back, and carries the right load of colour. It is slow, exacting work, and it is the reason a Stationerie liner behaves the way a good liner should.
That craft runs through the whole range: Kolinsky-synthetic detail liners, riggers and spotters for fine work; Squirella and Velour mops that drink up water for broad, even washes; Chungking hog flats with the spring that oil and acrylic need. Around the brushes we also make and stock handmade watercolour paper, canvases, palettes, and clay and printmaking tools.
A few picks for your studio
Not sure where to start? A short liner or rigger is the brush most artists reach for when they want control — clean lines, lettering, the last details on a piece. For watercolour, a squirrel or Velour mop changes how a wash lays down: fewer strokes, softer edges, less fighting the paper. And if you are building a kit from scratch, one of our mixed sets covers rounds, flats and liners in a single go.
You can browse the full catalogue here, or explore by what you paint.
One small tip: match the brush to the mark, not the medium
It is easy to buy brushes by medium — watercolour brushes, acrylic brushes. But the more useful question is what mark you want to make. Long, unbroken lines want a rigger, whatever the paint. Soft, spreading washes want a mop. Crisp edges want a flat. Choose for the mark and the same few brushes will serve you across media.
Come see us in Kolkata
You may know us by our older name. For more than twenty-five years we have served Kolkata’s artists as R Kumar (Art & Craft) on Gariahat Road, and Stationerie grew out of that same shop. If you are in the city, come in, hold the brushes, and talk to the people who make them. If you are anywhere else in India, we will ship them to you.
R Kumar (Art & Craft) · Stationerie
47/3 Gariahat Road, Ballygunge, Kolkata 700019
Thank you for reading, and for making things. We will be back with more from the workshop soon.
— The Stationerie team