I-MART Chinese Calligraphy Brush, Kanji, Sumi Water Writing, Painting Set

Looks great and it’s cheap

It worked great. It’s nice as a bundle and great to tote around

The quality just isn't there for the price. You do get a lot of necessary items to get you started but the box is constructed in a flimsy/imperfect manner on the inside. The "porcelain" items like the brush rest, chop stamp dish and water dish are "painted" in a messy way. Would have been better for them to be left plain white. They look cheap. The chop doesn't even look like anything on top - is it a fist? is it supposed to be a lion? You aren't given anything to carve it with but I don't guess that's a deal breaker.It would have been nice if it had come with a booklet to explain what everything is so you can get started creating right away (there is a very good intro video on YouTube from yanghaiying for general information on supplies not on this particular set).Overall it's a solid starter set. I wish the quality could have been better.

I have been learning Hangul calligraphy, and I purchased this in order to get started with some Asian-style brushes and inkstone. I didn't want to make a huge investment because I was still new. I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the set. The brushes were basic, but certainly serviceable for the price and I was able to get a good dark ink from the inkstone. The presentation box is very nice and it would make a wonderful gift for someone starting in Asian calligraphy.

My first surprise was the size of the package. It was huge. I had a Chinese calligraphy many years ago, it was good, but quite smaller.Does this matter? yes, these brushes are full size, over 6 t'sun (about 8 inches). One large and one medium of each of Chian (hard hair) and Juo Hao (soft). I knew there would be a blank jade/soapstone piece, from the seller's pictures, but actually it was a nice surprise to find that the container for red vermillion was already full!I guess most people will never carve the seal, but the stone lion dragon will do for a nice paperweight, also very useful to Oriental calligraphy.Then, there is that review that mentions that the lid had no handles. Well, mine arrived exactly that way, seemed to have no handles, until I picked it up, ta-da! handles were there, as you can see.All in all, I am amazed that I paid only a bit over $20 after tax. The box is very pretty, and this would make a very nice gift, probably comparing with sets priced 3, 5 times more.Is it for beginners? well, at this price, sure, though I would suggest that a real beginner start with an ink-filled brush instead, AND get this set for the moment that they feel they can do real stuff and go through the time-consuming process of preparing ink the right way. This looks like it can deliver excellent results.Now I'll go try it out!