14 April 2009

This evening we were visited by Bill Tingey who talked about several of the crafts of Japan, but the main subject of the evening was the art of Japanese woodturning and in particular their use of lacquer to enhance and protect their finished work. 

During the 25 or so years that Bill spent living and working in Japan he amassed a large collection of examples of their crafts. The photos below are a small part of his collection that he brought a long to illustrate his talk.

In addition to turned items Bill also had several examples of baskets made from split and intricately woven bamboo. But the most amazing item was a lacquer brush made from a piece of bamboo. Apparently these are made by leaving the end of a stick buried in the soil for some months to allow the soil bugs to break down the structure of the bamboo, but the fibres are left intact. So that when the stick is removed from the soil and beaten the remaining fibres make a brush which is ideal for applying lacquer to bowls.

Bill demonstrated how to apply lacquer to one of the bare bowls he had brought with him. He then used a "high tech" device to aid the drying process. Said "high tech" device consisted of a large cardboard box with a tray at the bottom supporting  a soaked (with hot water) towel and a small stand on which to place lacquered bowls. After about an hour sealed in this box the bowl, to which Bill had previously applied a coat of lacquer, was almost completely dry. Each bowl can receive up to 20 coats of the lacquer which is obtained as sap harvested from certain species of trees.

Bill was also keen to show nothing is wasted by Japanese craftsmen, the turpentine which was used to clean the demo brush, was used up as a first coat of (very thin!!) lacquer to a bare bowl.

Bill finished off a very enjoyable evening with a slide show of photos he took whilst in Japan showing the processes of production from cut trees to finished objects.