Poison sumac for a perfect finish? A quick epoxy fake-out spares the itch.
pgs. 42-49
Within the ongoing renaissance of fine furniture making, I find myself an enthusiastic evangelist and ardent agitator for the full appreciation of decorative surfaces in most iterations, especially finishing. Many skilled furniture makers consider me a weird woodworker. I see finishing as an opportunity to express skill and artistry, not something to endure or avoid.
Yup, Im the guy who thinks making things is mostly the necessary preamble to the more desirable task of making the surfaces sing in four-part harmony at the finishing bench.For most artisans aware of the rich history of traditional finishing, that sublime space of the perfect finish is occupied by the exquisite hand-rubbed or pad-polished transparent spirit varnish known commonly as French polish.
In that assertion they would be one-third correct, as a padded spirit varnish is but one of the trinity in the pantheon of sublime historic decorative finishes.
And as it happens, the remaining two finishes are interconnected in that the penultimate decorative surface, japanning, is in fact a Western derivative of the ultimate high-performance decorative finish representing the highest expression of the art namely oriental lacquerwork or urushi (ur-OO-she).
See Wiebke Padnikow’s thesis on the history and technology of lacquerwork.
Video Watch Maki Fushimi, lacquer master artist, work in silence in the studio. It’s hypnotic.
Book For creative inspiration, visit The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyos Japanese Lacquer Art Modern Masterpieces.
To Buy: Traditional Techniques with Don Williams collection of videos and articles.
