Very nice Mark:)

I have one very similar, maybe one or two brushes smaller, and then another smaller one which is made for miniature brushes. Both of mine are made from my black walnut trees, the predominate specie in my yard. They are some of my first woodworking projects.

I like your idea, as I am forever picking one off the floor that rolled off the table. The only draw-back that I see would be the loss of workspace.
I once converted a little metal swag lamp to a paintbrush holder by gluing tiny rare earth magnets to the paint brush handles. It was great for watercolor brushes as hanging the brushes allowed the bristles to maintain their shape. Unfortunately, I have lost that little swag-lamp brush holder.:)

One suggestion: If you make the holding points a triangle cut into the surface rather than a semi-circle the brushes don’t roll around and move so much.

I keep brushes in two jars (down from four). It’s less than ideal but considering my space limitations it’s working.

I’d like to see you use your design chops to come up with a better way to keep acrylic brushes damp while you paint so the paint doesn’t dry out on the bristles.

There are some gizmos on the market but they all have (fatal) flaws. When I’m done using a brush I put it bristles down in a jar and it rests at about a 35 degree angle against the lip. Putting bristles down in a jar of water supposedly ruins the tips by mashing against the bottom. My solution is to keep the jar filled with about 8 inches of water – the part of the handle that’s in the water provides enough buoyancy so the tips don’t get damaged. Of course it’s hard on the glue in the ferals and hard on the wooden handle – but the brushes are usually worn out before it becomes and issue, and I can fix most of the damage any way. It’s a poor jury-rig but it keeps me painting.

Build a better way for brushes to stay wet and painters will beat a path to your studio.

I am a watercolor painter, and years ago I designed a solution to the “wet brush problem.” It’s cheap and adjustable: (1) Get a roll of that holey-rubbery shelf liner (sold for $1 at Dollar Tree, of course). (2) Get a loose-leaf binder, of any thickness you like. (3) Cover the binder, as if you were covering a school textbook, with a custom-cut piece of the shelf liner.

To use it, just lay the brush down (head down, handle up) on the binder. You can do this both while painting or when finished with the brush. When the brush is dry, store it in the usual way if you like (brush tuft up in a jar).

This solution worked well for me for many months, the only issue being the area taken up on my painting table by the binder. Then I saw a “Brush Grip” and bought a couple of those. (Use duckduckgo.com to find the Brush Grip or an illustration of it.) I have a couple of the original design, built to hold on to a table or easel edge; I also have one of the newer design, with a rubber strap or Velcro(TM) patch for placing it. These are ingenious devices that have sets of curved plastic “tongs” facing one another in pairs. Simply slide the brush handle into one pair of opposing “tongs” and it is held very firmly and safely. To use that brush again, simply grab the opposite (brush) end and pull it out. There is no “fatigue” problem with the plastic “tongs”, and one Brush Grip holds up to 8 brushes at a time.

If you needed to keep the brush wet, you could try my first solution (the covered binder) with a well (just below the low end of the binder), using a larger–thicker– binder) that holds whatever medium your brushes need.