From wood to art - journey of Maki-e Lacquerware

In this video, you will watch how a piece of Maki-e Urushi lacquer art came to be. We will follow this process from the first step of selecting woods to the final completion of the Maki-e. Follow along to see this wonderful journey. The first step is choose the wood as the foundation for the Maki-e piece. Wood are usually procured as a whole log to be cut into slices and inspect for quality. If the slice wood is not up to standard, it is discarded to be use for another purpose. The slices who passed the test are measured to be cut into smaller pieces and store to dry. The next step is to shape the wood into the right frame. Using a lathe and a special tool, the artisan chips and grind away at the wood piece until it reach the right thickness. How do you determine this? If you can see light shine through the wood grains then you have reached the correct thickness. The third step of the process is to prepare the base Urushi layer. In a previous video, you have see the process of making Nori-urushi. This is