Manu Propria - How to make a dry lacquer high relief kanshitsu takamaki urushi objec

[Manupropria]

Today I would like to give you some information on a urushi technique called "kanshitsu takamaki". Takamaki, literally high sprinkled picture in combination with a technique called "kanshitsu". Classic "takamaki" is a relief picture built up with a number of alternating layers of urushi, sprinkled with charcoal. "Kanshitsu" is a technique in which a body is built with "kokusô" a mixture of sawdust and "mugi urushi" again a mixture of ki-urushi and whead flour. Kokusô can be used as a putty to shape things. The conch on the fountain pen was made in this technique.
To better explain how it is done I will post a photos of a paper weight I made a while ago .

In a first step kokusô is made by mixing saw dust with nori urushi. With this putty a raw body of a conch is formed. It needs 4 to 5 layers. each has to dry properly in the "furô" drying chamber for 24 hours. Raw or "ki-urushi" used for this technique contains a high portion of water. Therefore it dries more easily and quicker then regular urushi, sawdust absorbs water and helps the water to leave the lacquer and the oxygen to enter the lacquer.

For making the conch's spiky shape I used tooth picks.

Once the raw shape is made "sabi urushi" is applied with a stiff brush to fill the surface and to create the typical surface structure and lines of a conch shell. Sabi is a mixture of raw "ki-urushi" water and "tonoko" a powder made of fired clay. Tonoko is also used for polishing with oil.

To close the sabi urushi a layer of ki-urushi is applied. Ki-urushi is liquid due to high water content and therefore soakes into the sabi urushi layer to make it stabile.

Then a thick layer of "nakanuri" is applied and sprinkled/soaked with iron powder and in the "furô" for 24 hours.

Interesting is, that there is a special affinity between urushi and iron, they "love" eachother and make a very strong and stabile connection. The best black "roiro" urushi is made by adding Ferrous Sulfate to clear urushi. in contact with the sufate, urushi turns black. Such black urushi is also drying much faster than transparent or red pigmented urushi.

Then a number of layers of black "roiro" urushi is applied and each layer dried for in the "furô"24 hours.

After the urushi has properly hardened the fine structures of the shell is engraved.

After engraving one or two thin layers of black urushi as applied and after hardening the surface is slightly polished as desired.

The piece of wood on the paper weight is made from "kokusô" and "sabi".

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[john]

Amazing

[scrivelry]

Fascinating! Thank you!