Amanda Thrower has been making paint brushes for 27 years. For her, and the other women at Crown, the Winsor & Newton brush factory in Lowestoft, Suffolk, this isn’t just a job – it’s a vocation, a passion, and a skilled craft with a long history.
Amanda is one of just 11 brushmakers in the world who can make Winsor & Newton’s iconic Kolinsky Series 7 brush by hand, using the same techniques that have been employed since the company was founded almost two centuries ago. Most of those brushmakers are women, and they all work from the Lowestoft factory. While the word ‘factory’ may conjure images of machinery and automation, this couldn’t be further from the reality of the hand-crafted brushes.
“I can’t imagine them being made by machine, because they are so intricate,” says Thrower. “You have to get the correct shape, a nice shape. I take pride in each one that I make and I know the quality is there. I don’t know if you’d get the same quality and shape if you used machines.”
