Well my hope is that so long as my sub-folders don't get too large in number of brushes, I won't have any more problems. I thought that the new information I had to share was at least informative, even if it wasn't solving the problem. for whatever reason, I seem to have a limit to the number of brushes that GIMP will allow in any one folder, but it's fine with two folders having an aggregate greater than a one-folder 'limit'

very strange situation indeed. I'll continue to always share to two locations in case I start losing the brushes again.

The good news is that the brushes that were going missing were my earliest attempts, and in the end I would ultimately have replaced those brushes as being less refined than later created brushes.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Here is a link to what I created.... Nefertaris Tomb

The lower half of the image contains my custom "brushes" ... Not all of them, but a lot of them. This was my most ambitious painting thus far. I felt emboldened by the solutions that ensured I wouldn't lose the brushes. It has more than 450 hieroglyphs - 33 of them are brand new -- I had the courage to make them due to this thread.

I'm going to take my best brushes and make it into a set that I'll share freely with anyone who wants to use it. It's the least I can do to help others (in case anyone is at all interested) to pay forward the selfless help I've received here. My plan is to put them into a zip file and share here and/or on DeviantArt.

I had a look at your link, really outstanding creations, LadyLithia.
It will be a generous and useful gift a set of brushes, many thanks in advance.

Breath taking, thank you in anticipation. Your generosity is only exceeded by your skill.