Journal

Espresso cups. Oak, different urushifinishes.

Servingplate from cedarwood, finished with fuki-urushi and sprinkeled jinoko.

Finished bowl after uwa nuri coat.

Finished Espresso cups.

Nuno Kise. A linencloth is infiltrated with nori urushi and applied on the woodbase.

Cups with trimmed linen cloth after nuno kise. The cloth acts like a laminate and gives additional strenght.

Cutting back a worn out hake / brush with a sharp knife (kiri dashi)

Cup from Elmwood, reinforced with hempcloth. Nuritatefinish and sprinkled tonokofinish. Keshishuai urushi.

Yoshino Gami, handcrafted filter paper for urushi. A gift from Maki Fushimi.

Finished cup fresh out of the furo. This is the how the surface looks like after the last and final layer has been applied.

A peek into the furo. The furo or muro is needed to cure urushi. The humidity inside is about 75%, only then urushi changes it's fluid state to solid.

Big soup bowls in the making. Nuno kise step is done. The cloth helps to give strength to the wooden base.

This surfacefinish is achieved by lacquering the object with urushi and sprinkling ground powder afterwards. In this case it's jinoko.

Cups after Naka-Nuri. After sanding these, the next and last step is Uwa-Nuri. A last, thick layer of urushi applied by brush.

Big bowls with sieved jinoko (diatomaceous earth) on it.

Finished urushiware ready to use.

Big bowl after sumi tsuki shitaji foundation (pinedust/noriurushi).

Sidetabletop with sieved tonoko surface.

Several objects before naka-nuri coating. Between every step, sanding is crucial. These have been sanded with 800 grit.

Signing is always the last step. This means that the process of making the object is finished and it can be used from now on.

Brush from human hair, called Hake. The hair is going all the way through and can be cut back when needed.

Pigments and tools for making urushiware.

Different textures and surface techniques on cups. All finished.

Kijigatame with red urushi, the first layer.

Basestudies ready for the first coats.

Hashi (chopsticks) with a rough texture for a better grip.

Fixature for holding cups. The cup is held by a pressfit.

Sanded cups. The finish on these will be fuki urushi. The urushi lacquer is wiped off with a cloth and repeated several times.

Studiolife.

Hashi in the furo, curing. It takes 24h until one can touch it.

Helpful little pottery wheel. This machine makes sanding (togi) more easy.

Wooden cup base. This is before applying urushi (Kijigatame) the first time.

Nuno Kise on these cafe cups.

Finished urushiware.

Gallery and Studio at Moosbruggstrasse 25 in St. Gallen, Switzerland

67_Journal Nushiya-bocho, a special knife to carve spatulas.

Old work 2018. Elmbowls finished, fresh out of the furo.

Signed, finished bowl.

Plates and bowls.

Nuno Kise on a Bentobox.

Uma, a device that helps, filter urushi.

Turned cups from Koubousenju / Yasushi Satake in Yamanaka Onsen, Japan. I usually turn my woodbase myself, but had the chance to visit him and his workshop in 2020. After a year wait he sent me 34 turned cups.

Wooden oak bases for upcoming espresso cups.

Still life. Serving plate, a bowl and two sets of hashi / chopsticks with rests from used filterpaper.

Chestnut bowls. The first coat is already applied. Next step ist Nuno-Kise.

Chestnutbowl after applying soumi-shitaji foundation.

Filtering Ki-Urushi (raw urushi) with a uma. This device helps to wring out the urushi in the filterpaper gently.

Chopsticks / Hashi in the making.

These cups are ready for the next layers with the fuki urushi technique.

Sampleplate showing the different foundations needed to build up the layers.

Soumi-shitaji foundation. A paste of riceflour, water, sawdust and urushi is applied on the cloth to close the gaps and smoothen the surface.

The rim after nuno-kise. Roughly sanded and ready for the next step, Soumishitaji.

Finished elmwood cup and bowl. Reinforced with linencloth, several foundations, finished with nuritate technique.

Jinoko_Shitaji foundation on these chestnut bowls. Next up, Nihenji-shitaji. The same process with a slightly different paste to even out the gaps and the surface from the last foundation.