The English name of NAKAYA's urushi lacquer fountain pen is JAPAN. We, at NAKAYA who worry
a lot about Japanese fountain pen and craftsmanship put efforts in especially in this
urushi fountain pens. NAKAYA's urushi fountain pens are lacquered in Aizu, Kaga or Wajima.
The bird flying on the right side of the picture is black kite.
Wajima is one of the few cities in Japan where still lot of nature is remaining in the
city. It will be more lively next year as new airport will open.
At NAKAYA, we always make testing with unique "Tame-nuri" (pool coating), "Shu" (red),
"Arai-shu" (washed red), "Midori" (green) and others.
The black fountain pen, which is the standard product of NAKAYA, is finished with black urushi
lacquer. Also briar is finished with Fuki Urushi.
The process of urushi lacquer ware like bowls is introduced in many home pages. Here we
will show with pictures how the process of Urushi painting of NAKAYA fountain pen is performed.
All processes are handwork of experienced urushi craftsmen.
Not only the time for the process itself but time needed for drying to go to next process is quite long.
Urushi fountain pen of NAKAYA
First prepare urushi lacquer.
The picture shows "Shu" (red urushi). The color is made by mixing Shuai urushi and pigments.
To remove dust, filter the urushi first.
Apply urushi lacquer on fountain pen barrel. Fair expertise is needed to put urushi evenly without the brush mark.
Depending on the needs, urushi is applied repeatedly. In case of Tame-nuri, urushi is applied
as such that base color will be seen as time passes when Uwa-nuri urushi lacquer becomes
more and more translucent.
After urushi lacquering, it is dried in the "nushiburo" behind the craftsman to avoid dust.
The barrel is turned few times so that urushi does not droop down and will have same thickness.
The surface processing of briar.
Put the high quality and first class raw urushi on cotton cloth and apply on the ground surface and
wipe with soft Japanese paper appropriately. Repeat this process and make the surface glossy.
Performing Makie. Paint the picture with urushi and sprinkle gold powder on it.
Gold powder is fixed only to the place where urushi is applied.
Proceed the work little by little with thin paintbrush.
Plate attached to thumb is something like palette.
Regarding Urushi, please refer to many homepages where explaining about urushi.
Handmade fountain pen Go to products introduction page
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