This looks interesting, I would love to see what you come up with - I've always avoided patterns simply because they are by their nature so-not-seamless, that I've found them too limited to use much.

In fact I go to a lot of trouble to make an image seemless before I do anything else with it, i.e. putting that image onto a 3d model (like an image of bricks or rusty metal, or a wall or on a spaceship or oildrum.) Patterns on the other hand look very repetitive since they are usually made up of a tiny area in one corner repeated many many times to deliberately create a repeating pattern...

Brushes I look at as being different again, to be used either just once, a few times or many times on an image, depending on the effect. For instance I created a brush from an image of a dandelion seedhead like flower (actually a thistle) then I carefully placed the brush over a large area in precise positions to make a carpet design, on another I used blood drips to create rusty & oily drip marks on the surface of a machine (a robot model) on others I've used a cloud brush to create a foggy misty effect for a cloud plane.

I can't at the moment imagine how you'd use a pattern as a brush - so please please, do explain what you are using this for - I'm absolutely fascinated!

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com