Asian Treasure Hunt: 6月 2014

Wancher Ebonite Original Urushi Makie Art Fountain pen Body for the KOP, MONT149

THE MAKIE on this pen is same quality of the expensive namiki makie!!

A very special 3D makie deign of the Carp, Koi floating in the pond , it looks as if it is real carp floating on your fountain pen body. A very unique and special art form which you all will be surprised to see.

This pens body size is same as the sailor KOP pen.

The length of the pen body- 153.5mm

Width of pen body- 20mm

Weight- 32.8gm

Model no- WA-CN-Makie-CARP-L

I hope you love and appreciate this fountain pen bodies new original urushi makie art! please do read below its research and how it is made for better understanding!!

I have written the research Paper on the Silk Road Urushi Makie art Origin. So please do read below my findings and research about it.
I will be thankful if you leave your feedback on it!

The Very Special Urushi Makie technique from the ancient silk road

My Journey:

This time we have bought a very ancient art craft of the urushi makie technique from the ancient Silk Road.

We always go for the treasure hunting of the hidden art forms in different countries. Thanks to the internet and the social networks our hunt of the different worlds art form is becoming a reality in very short time.

When I was in Shanghai in few years ago to see some exhibit of the famous Chinese contemporary art I had a news feed on my weibo ( Chinese social network) about the new discovers of the hidden art forms in the Xian county North of china. Who knew that this small news feed led me to go all around the North to find this infamous ancient makie art form and to present in front of you all.

As we all know the famous terracotta army of Qing dynasty dated around 210BC was discovered long time back in the Xian. After that there have been many small but very crucial discoveries of the Qing dynasty the oldest Courtyard of China.

So I didn’t turn a single stone head and went all along to the North to see the new discoveries.

In this new discovery, I found there were some utensils of ancient art form which proves that the Chinese civilization was long time using pots, and other utensils to cook food and also there were significant discovery that they may used oil in cooking too according to the stains on the pot.

After close examination by my archegeloist friend, we noted that there is some kind of art form on the pots too. He was a great help for me as we overcame the language barrier we had before. But as these pots and utensils were buried under the royal courtyard sight it suggests that these cooking pots and utensils were used for the Royal family and there was some significant art form of the painting on it too. The rich painting was one form of the urushi lacquer as the sal of the lacquer were damaged and crippled alongside. I finally decided to stay in the Xian for more days to start my journey to find more about the urushi art form lacquer work in china and its significance. For time being I didn’t know how and dint wanted to decide my days as I was more focused on its contents. My quench for this knowledge was insatiable and day by day I was becoming voracious. Whatever bits of information I could collect was a major part for my research.

As days past I collected lot of information, running around libraries where old library care takers constant look and stares on a foreigner was grew as a habit for me every day.

After strenuous work of finding, I was quite surprised that the Chinese urushi lacquer art work was one of the ancient art work which flourished much before the silk road trade route. The Royal family used them in all possible ways to dominate the royal status and the art work was forbidden for the banal. The art work also gave the understanding of the ancient Chinese civilization craftsmanship, their richness, their kingdoms power.

Now the process of the connection dots I wanted to connect about my previous research on the urushi lacquer makie art form of the Japan and Vietnam was also roaring in my head. I cannot rest until I was convinced with the proper evidence of these dots has to be connected and its roots all lies in the ancient Chinese civilization. I would like to explain to you in the below simple diagram.

From the chart above I want to explain the flow of the urushi lacquer makie art from its origin.

China as the main origin root of the urushi lacquer makie where various artists made different design inspired by the ancient Chinese civilization. Later this famous art form travelled to various parts of the world by the merchants and traders in order to impress and satisfy the other kingdoms art form.

In Japan, the merchants carried it to the royal courtyard of Japan and thus in mean course of time it changed, the ancient Chinese design changed to the Japanese design. The more inspiration from the root made the design to blend with the local designs according to the kings and Queens and other royal family taste.

It also travelled to Vietnam inspiring the art form and then blending into their own cultural form.

Later this art went to Europe from the Vietnam and Japan route but not direct from China.

Isnt this amazing to know that this old art from travelled different parts of the world in very different way through different channels.

The next interesting thing is that this art may have travelled to other parts of the world through different channels which I have yet to explore and know it. I am sure it has travelled and still flourishing in different parts of the world too, for this I need the proper more research, more travel and more discoveries of the world art form.

Thus this journey is still not finished, I’m on the hunt in order to find, explore the hidden puzzles which are not yet solved which I am sure you will find it interesting.

Silk Road:

As we all know the famous silk road was the trading path from the East to West trading not only commodities but the various different culture and art too.

The Silk road has influenced a lot of art form from different civilization and the world’s most ancient art form has its roots here too.

The Silk Road map below demonstrates the trade path road connecting different civilization and culture, in today’s modern day we call them as countries or nations.

The background of the urushi makie origin city:

Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming dynasty. Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history including Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang.

Let us get into the more details of this famous art form which originated in the starting point of the silk road. You will be surprised to you that even in this generation this makie art has been done.

Handmade Makie technique

There are various steps the urushi art makie gets finally lacquered in your pen, tea bows and pen trays etc.

1) The Sal extraction:

The sal from the tree has to be taken out in order to make the lacquer.

This removal of lacquer requires strength, power and also the knowledge of the tree. Not any of the tress the sal can be extracted, only special trees can give the sal and this requires knowledge in order to extract it.

2) The Sal seed formation:

The sal gums extracted from the tress are converted into the seeds forms and then into the fin granules in order to match with the paint and mix with it to apply on the surface of the pen.

3) Applying of the lacquer

The lacquer has to be applied and painted in very meticulous way. This requires very high skills not nay one can make it. Under the artists immense hard training for long years this technique can be mastered and thus the lacquer form can be put into it.

4)The drying of the lacquer:

The most time consuming steps in the urushi lacquer making.

The drying of the lacquer is all handmade. The drying can be done by machines in order to shorten the time period of the production and also increase the production. But this art form of XIAN --No machines are used as the artists wants to give the exact old silk road art form of the urushi to the pens. They want to preserve the old art form of it and drying is done under the sun for long time no matter how long it takes as the natural drying helps the lacquer pigment to absorb in the pen bodies slowly and firmly making them more intense in color, brightness and shape with the help of the Sunlight.

5) The painting :

This also needs proper care as what has to be painted on the pen. Not any picture get painted. Each paint and color and the tip of the brush touching the pens surface in order to make the urushi lacquer makie pens has to depict a message, a story , a noble message to the fellow members of the different civilization. This was practiced in the ancient silk raod traed and the Emperors of different civilization and cultures liked this art not because of its marvelous techniques and beauty but also because it gave them the message, the understanding of the different culture, civilization and acknowledging the different people and implementing them into their own civilization for better development and understanding the human emotions too.

6) The polishing:

The polishing is also a very important step at the end to make the art form glitter like gold. They use the Charcoal powder to polish and not the modern days sand paper to polish. The charcoal powder was used in the ancient times of the silk road trade and it was very fine form of the technique which many artists could not understand easily unless trained a special manner. This process gives the lacquer a new luster and makes it so firm in order to not get washed off or peeled off by any other forms of water of liquid.

7) The final art form:

After the intense hard work on 1 piece and taking care from its start process of lacquer hunting, applying, drying, painting the final art form gets to displayed by the royal courtyard in order to acknowledge and expose them to the common man to understand the art form and develop different skills. That is the reason display is important in order to show and appeal and empathize.