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

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.

Reference Link

The History of Paper by Silk road foundation1997-2000

 From http://www.silk-road.com/artl/papermaking.shtml

The Legacy of Silk Road

From http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/legacy-silk-road

The Exchange of Goods And Ideas Along the Silk Roads by China Institute CIeducation Portal

From http://www.chinainstitute.cieducationportal.org/cimain/wp-content/themes/chinainstitute/pdfs/education/fromsilktooil_pdf5.pdf

The Jiangnakeji Paper

From http://www.geocities.jp/jiangnankejp03/jiang_yan/01.htm

Urushi Past, Present, Future by JAPANWARE

http://www.meiji.ac.jp/museum/shop/zuroku-syousai.html


Thank you for reading it.
Japan 2014

Wancher King of Pen Standard 1911 21kt Fusion of Horizons Series Fountain Pen!! Autumn Persimmon Gold Foliage Urushi lacquer Makie

Wancher King of Pen Standard 1911 21kt Fusion of Horizons Series Fountain Pen Special Autumn Persimmon Gold Foliage Urushi lacquer makie Art Pen! This time we are introducing the very special Wancher Fusion of Horizons Fountain Pen. The motive behind this fusion of Horizon is deep like ocean. Wancher is always striving hard for the best art from the world. This time we have to take a look back at the historical art forms around us and we were surprised to know the various facts and connection. Let me explain you our Fusion of horizon Art Dot connection!!

Starting our connection from Japans famous Urushi Lacquer Makie art in various forms. We have wonderful fountain pens from different brands with different artists. Even we at Wancher made various Japanese Urushi lacquer Art Pens. If you go back in the history these art forms of makie was highly influenced by the French fine art which was termed as Japonisme Japonisme might be considered a general term for the influence of the arts of Japan on those of the West, whereas in France.Japonisme is applied to such influence and is in addition the name of a specific French style. The Japonisme has the french and Japan culture mixture. The makie such as ukiyo-e, wood block printings, takamakie etc. have such influences. To this interesting point the French culture influence was also passed to the former French colony in the South East Asia in Vietnam. Vitenam also had traditional Urushi lacquer art form which came along the silk road. Later the French occupation made the art form blend into the similar art form as the Japonisme. Thus the dots actual connect from Japan to France to Vietnam art form which was carried in the early 19th century to these countries under various names by different artists. After we got this connection of the fusion of horizon dots we landed on the Japonisme influenced Vietnam Urushi Lacquer makie art form. As these dots connected in 19th century that is the period of early industrial revolution when the fountain pen was in full boom. The handicraft fountain pens were made in that period which we have inculcated into 19th century writing instrument and urushi Makie fusion. This is the meaning of the Wancher Fusion of Horizon Art. This has no boundaries!! Pretty interesting! What Art form we will use this time? We have immensely used this fusion of horizon on our fountain pens. As rightly said "Pens are mightier than sword" . Writing instrument plays a pivotal role in our life's. We write every day, in our lives ups and downs pens are always with us expressing different feelings and situations of oneself. The Fountain pens are the oldest form of writing instrument which gives us the pleasure of writing with different characters and forms while enjoying the ink colors. The fountain pens are with us before industrial revolution when there were no machines and the hand craft art was highly influenced on it.

This time the beautiful makie is made by Wancher on Sailor 1911 King of Pen model. This model was selected for various reasons 1) This model is the one of the most favorable model with perfect pen balance even for short or heavy hand writers. 2) the nib is the standard 21kt gold nib in dual tone which gives the pressure equal from all directions with lustrous black color. 3) the makie on the king of pen standard model looks astonishing, beauty with brains combination. Design: this time the design is of the Autumn Persimmon flower with the gold foliage. The red flowers are the Persimmon flower with the background of the leaves shedding in autumn giving it the metaphor of the gold color. Is it worth and how? Every Art has different price and different value. It is very hard to tag a price on any certain art form. People have quarreled, fought, made various assumptions to tag different prices. I think this is the one of the most difficult task for anyone. Various factors plays a major role in deciding the price. If I want I would like to put the priceless tag on these pens. The 2 most deciding factors for the prices of these pens are 1) Artists historical background , teachings, learning's, thoughts, expressions, lifestyle ( all details are in our makie journey passage) 2) The nature of the art form with the historical significance and civilization reformation. This was reformed along the silk road passage with amalgamation of French and Japonisme art form. Considering these factors of value of these fountain pens may be around $3000USD Please try this unique art pen and you may get the real value of the art in yourself by using this precious fountain pens!! Thus our Journey started make the makie art on the fountain pens. We first met him in Japan on various art functions and thrilled by his majestic art work, we were invited to his hometown in Vietnam to understand more deep meaning of his art. So we packed our bags in order to search a new ray of hope of art and landed on Vietnam soil. This time fate has made us to go to the obscure and clandestine part of the South East Asia, in Vietnam. Vietnam has been affected by war history with lot of precious art hidden in this country. The art flourishes in the veins of these nation cultured people. This is how we got connected to the famous artists with intense knowledge and eloquent in his speech. He has a great knowledge with different perspective and also familiar with the Japan Urushi and Vietnam Urushi makie technique handmade.. At first this countries scenic beauty with the classic old history made me reminiscent of the all passages of the famous book by Philip Caputo "Rumour of War." We got a very friendly welcome from the local people. We didnot stayed in hotel but stayed at the artists house to amalgamate in his art on his request. I wanted to feel , touch each and every detail of his art. No special services nor any special demands were made by us, as we wanted to experience the complete lifestyle same as the artists. Artists background, lifestyle: and handmade technique: The Artist house was located in the hilly regions of the north eastern part of the Vietnam. a very oriental with little western style house made us pleasant. There was Pin drop silence in his house with the rustling noise of the leaves and chirping sound of the birds. The transportation was a bit inconvenient but the natures power made us forget everything. His art was completely based on the surroundings same as hirotasan. And both has a great similarities in terms of talking of art and referring it to the nature. His handmade lacquer paintings required huge concentration. Each pen was handpainted which actually takes around 5-6 months to make a single piece. His collection of art was locked in the complete dark surreptitious room. We saw many uruhsi lacquer art flaunting on the wall, desk, the whole room was like a lacquer box and inside it we were small mouse feeling each and every flavor of the urushi makie. His strict lifestyle and his immense effort to make a true art can be seen not only in his work but also in his eyes. Whenever I looked in his eyes, it shined in the various forms of Lacquer Art. His influence with the Japonisme Urushi makie art : He told us many interesting his childhood stories which made sometimes laugh, sometimes sad. He is also well known in Japan about his extra ordinary Urushi art. His most prominent art was the preserving of the ancient Corpse in Urushi lacquer to mark the Asian History. This is also one of the art form related in the Japonisme In fact this art work was first used in the 15 century and was carried to Japan along the silk Road which we know them as urushi lacquer. The buddhist monk used to preserve the corpse by painting the urushi lacquer on the corspe which makes them ant bacterial and thus can be preserved for long time. The Japans traditional lacquer art has a huge reference passage of this art coming from the Silk road to the Emperor and Royal Courtyard which was highly impressed and embraced this art to national treasures. He was invited to the Japan urushi lacquer art for the exhibition in it, he was recalled on the silent art work. His art has huge similarities and also some how inspired by the famous Japanese lacquer art under whom he had a little few lessons. He has been painting the Brush pens in urushi lacquer which was magnificent. His art is also highly influenced by the nature which makies it very similar to the Japan art. We got to know each and every details of his art, understanding . Living with him was an unforgettable and most precious experience. At last when we left his place a sense of thankfulness and feeling of lonely crippled me. His last smiling wrinkled face with the tearful eyes has been carried with me to Japan and I want to share it with the whole world.

Specification: Manufacture: Wancher Model: Sailor The King of Pen Nib material: 21kt solid bicolor gold plated Nib size: MEDIUM Filling system: Converter included Diameter: 20mm Weight: 32.8gm (only the pen) Length:153.5mm(cap closed)＆170.5mm(cap closed) Made in Japan