With the nearest hardware store about 15 miles and a day and a half away, I (Mark Wholey) did what any self-reliant handyman/sculptor would do. I got out the duct tape. The paintbrush I was using had been threatening to fall apart for days did just that hurling me to the fulcrum of destiny. 

My workshop stood on a dirt floor below a majestic old stone farmhouse woven into the side of a granite mountain with spectacular views of the Tuscan/Umbrian hills. A warm blend of beeswax and turpentine was being applied to an oak and chestnut writing desk I had just finished making.  There was not another paintbrush to use. I placed the ferrule gently into a vise and started to prise in the handle. Arriving at a right angle to the bristles, I thought: “interesting !?” Taped it together that way and finished brushing in the wax blend. The brush felt unusually comfortable. Very interesting.

Next I made a prototype out of plywood and it worked just fine. I realized then, that it was the right way to hold a paintbrush. The Right Brush was born. Problem was that it was me holding this bright idea not someone better suited to bring it into the world and surely there was already such a brush so I went searching. First to my local hardware store, which by then, Monday morning, was open for business.  Nothing in their stack of catalogues nothing from an Internet search. Ditto from US Patent Office. Odd shaped handles, yes, but nothing so simple as mine! I sensed the finger from the great fraternity of inventors pointing my way. I started to worry.

Meanwhile I kept refining the design. As long as I am tinkering with an international icon what else can I do to make it better? Ergo, the hanging hook.  The brush can be suspended on the outside rim of a gallon can or inside without distorting the bristles. Keep the design similar to the standard handle for continuity. Have surface contours in response to the sensitivity of touch. And make it sculptural. Homage to the arts from which paintbrushes seem to have been born. (And not changed much... ‘til now.)

It was time to pony up some cash and get serious with this funny looking paintbrush. I applied for a patent and was awarded a genuine, authentic United Sates Design Patent. Which I sat upon for five years. Why spoil success with risk? I ask you.

But eventually, like a pebble in an otherwise perfectly fitting shoe, the brush had to come out.  Luckily I am an artist and accustom to rejection and proceeded.

I’ve always liked air-drying my clothes because of the fresh smell and because your clothes last longer. About 13 years ago while doing laundry, I got this idea to put a denim blouse on a hanger and put it in the eyebolt that connects the wire from pole to pole on the clothesline. I was watching the clothes blow in the wind and I realized that the blouse was moving around, but had not slipped off the hanger or out of the hole. That’s how the idea was born.

Next, I then started looking for something that I didn’t even know what that something was. About 3 weeks later I was watching TV when I heard the doorbell ring, I looked up at the door to see who was there (no one was). While looking at the door I focused on the door hinge and then I got the design.