Some Of My Recent Urushi Work

[Sharksteve]

Dear FPN Friends,

 

here are some pens I recently made:

A negoro nuri one:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_04.JPG

 

another negoro nuri:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_05.JPG

 

A tsugaru nuri:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_07.JPG

 

A raden pen:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_09.JPG

 

another raden pen:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_12.JPG

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tintenschneck_11.JPG

 

Stefan www.tintenschnecke.at

[turningneko]

WOWSA! Those are absolutely gorgeous! Do you have any reference material on how to do these techniques? I'm open to books, videos, websites, blogs, or anything really... Thanks for posting these beauties!

[zaddick]

Great efforts Stefan. I especially like the raden pens.

[Nanor]

Beautiful work, would also like to know who you obtained those finishes?

[Sharksteve]

The process works like this:

Each pen has been covered in 4 - 6 layers of black urushi lacquer (delicately wet sanded with #1000 grid sandpaper after each application and curing for a couple of days at 80-85% humidity and 24-26 degree Celsius - the right temperature and humidity is essential for the curing), the next layer was done with clear urushi, hologram glitter has been sprinkled into the wet laquer creating the "Stars". In the next steps decorating elements where handpainted in red urushi. After that 23,5k powdergold can be applicated onto the still sticky red lacquer, gilding the lacquer. Further layers in clear urushi can be painted on and cured. Once all layers are done, the urushi gets completey cured - about a week at 80% humidity and 25 C - the pen was wet sanded with very fine grid until the decoration became visible. For the finishing kijo-mi urushi (specially filtered and for that purpose made urushi, that cures fast, very expensive, useful for impregnation of surfaces) gets applicated on the pen and wiped off with filtering paper (like tea filter-paper). After curing for additional 24hrs, the pen got polished and once again kijo-mi urushi got applicated and wiped off. That is repeated a couple of times. The idea is that the kijo mi urushi gets into pores and micro scratches. Each time the kijo mi has been cured, the pen is polished with polishing paste. I use 3 different ones. After a final curing period the lacquer is burnished and polished again to a glasslike shine, I use polishing clothes and the skin of my fingers. Polishing is delicate, I need about 1 1/2 hrs between each kijo mi step and 3 hrs for the last step. So many hours of sanding and many hours of polishing. The idea with the sanding is that in between layers the sanding removes hair and dust particles and ensures (due to the roughness of the surface) a binding between each layer. Length of the production process for each pen is about 2 months.

[Nanor]

That's an awful lot of work but the results look superb.

[inkstainedruth]

Great efforts Stefan. I especially like the raden pens.

 

What zaddick said....

Fortunately for my wallet, I have a sneaking suspicion that urushi and I would not get along.... Sorry for your wallet though....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth