I've seen people talk of 'raden' which looks like small pieces of mother of pear... what is it?
skyp

Raden is a lacquer with shells impregnated in it. We typically see Abalone shells in modern pens, but any shell will do.

Hello Skyp,

Yes, Raden is the Japanese word for bits of mother of pearl or abalone shell embeded into wet lacquer.

Below is a 1930s Platinum maki-e pen. The artist used bits of abalone shell for the flower petals.


Stay Well
RD

It's one of the more beautiful abstract treatments in urushi artistry, IMHO.






I also recommend reading up on Winedoc's pinned posting in this forum.

Since it can be done with mother of pearl as well -- is that common these days?

My guess is the material itself is probably not scarce as there are a lot of places that culture pearls

Most mollusks (not necessarily the pearl-producing oyster) have nacre (or mother of pearl) in their shells - this is the iridescent carbonate material that lines the inner shell of the mollusk.

I knew that, I collect pearls. Though these days, I have more money in pens. Just.

It was more a question of custom than technology.

I am wondering whether there are enough younger people who are learning the technique. I think raden products are more common in Korea than in Japan.

I found some stores that makes or sells raden products.

http://www.radenn.co.jp/

http://www.bx.misty.ne.jp/~mantoku/

http://www.daimibussan.com/ (Korean raden products)

(Hey, Deirdre! You should go to Ishigaki Island in Okinawa...I like black and gold pearls produced there. Also if you ever go to Ginza, don't forget to drop by Mikimoto, it's basically across the street from Itoya )

It would be interesting to see what other nacre based shell fish creatures can produce Raden quality carbonate, and in varying colors. Combining iridescent black among the fragments might look rather stunning.

There are different types of raden application. Here are some from the 1950s. I think we've posted these before. These are good mens size pens.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment
The one on the left is not. We have a few more of differing techniques that we might post this weekend or highlight on our site.

Stan, are those all Pilot pens? The one with the red urushi is simply stunning. Have you seen more than one in your pen experience?

I expected Stan to jump all over this question. No those pens of his are not Pilots, they are a lesser known company named Yotsubishi. In Japanese this name means Four Diamonds (The better known company, Mistubishi, means three diamonds) Yotsubishi made a business selling fine quality maki-e pens like this in the early 1950s. Stan has an extensive collection of these and can surely tell you more about them. Here is one of mine:

As Ron notes they are not by Pilot but, by Yotubisi a small Osaka-based company who made semi-custom pens during the 1950s. They are nice to look at and of excellent construction quality. Although they bought nibs from suppliers, they used the best available.

Am not sure if I have an extensive collection. I have a few and, time permitting, am posting pictures, including some where raden was used, on my website. should have a few more up by the end of this weekend.

Pertanining to this pen:


Considering there are about 35 to 40 pieces of abalone shells PER hexagon, not counting egg shells used for the cap dome and barrel end... ALL done by hand. This is a very time consuming process.

Kevin

A long time ago I bought a pendant for a young lady that I was sweet on, that was made like this. However, instead of using shell pieces, they used tiny shards of opal that were too small to do anything else with.

It was inexpensive, and it was stunning.

Didn't get the girl, though...

Thanks for the info, Ron and Stan. I was thinking those pens were by Pilot because of the clip design. I've seen a number of older Pilot pens with a very similar design. I wonder if Pilot and those other companies sourced them from the same company?

Kevin, how do those artists inlay the abalone shells in each hexagon? I was thinking that they'd apply the urushi and then inset the shells... and that they'd have a limited amount of time to do it before the urushi sets. Does the urushi stay soft for long periods? The other method I'm thinking of is to use a small amount of urushi as "glue" with each shell, afix them all, then apply a very dense coat of clear urushi over the barrel to surround the shell fragments, with a final set of coatings over the entire barrel to achieve perfect smoothness. I wonder if there are any videos available showing urushi artists doing this kind of work?

Hey Myu,

Pilot first came out with this sword clip in the late 1930s. The date 1934 sticks in my mind, but I would have to check my refrences to be sure. As Japans invasion of China started to dry up the national resources, a steel clip version was introduced to go with the Shiro nibs. After the war, Pilot again made this style clip until the late 1950s as the Pilot Super line was released.

Since Pilot enjoyed the position of best quality pen in Japan, it was just a mater of time until other pen makers copied the design. An issue of the Pilot Times, Pilots In-house magazine claimed that Pilots founder (Ryosuke Namiki) designed the clip himself, but you always have to take these claims with a grain of salt. In the end, many of the pen parts makers had a version of the sword clip, and it is actually quite comon to find 2nd and 3rd tier pen makers with this clip.

I can not speak for Kevins pen, but I would bet your first description of the raden maki-e technique is right on the money. I have seen it done many times in Wajima, and it is always something of a thrill to watch. After the urushi is brushed onto a pen it remains sticky for half a day, and the artists seem to have no problem applying all of the raden in that time. Usually the artists work on caps and barrels at different times. After a day, you can pick the pens up by hand, but they are still not perfectly dry. For example, if a pen was left touching something, say like the clip of another pen, after several hours a touch mark would be noticible on the surface and the pen would be ruined. When the lacquer is applied thickly, the pens need to be rotated on the drying racks to prevent the urushi from running to one side of the pen. The pens take a few weeks for them to become safely hardened.

Stay well

RD

Here are the major important steps (not all the steps obviously):
The whole pen is painted with Urushi for the base to make the base strong, interim urushi painting to prapare for finishing. And on this Urushi layer, the Raden
work will be done. On the section, Nashiji (very fine gold powders) were sprinkled with powder tube. The artist actually tried to make the hexagon both by sprinkling gold powders first and then set the abalone shells and those smaller Hirame in gold or in silver mixed with gold by hand piece by piece. All these were done before the final burnishing is done. Under routine to vigorous use, there is no fear that the raden pieces would come out.

Here is the pic of the Nashiji on the section I am telling you about:


And the Hirame on top and bottom of the pen (this pic shows the bottom):


Kevin

So the Raden is put on top of the urushi and then once hardened, it is polished? I guess this polishing is what gives the barrel a smooth surface?

And then there isn't a top coat of urushi to seal is all in?

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that the ebonite is carved out and the raden inlayed. Is this true?