Tag Archives: traditional
Mixing oil, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi
This is an oil that is mixed with either roiromigakiko or ishiko for final polishing of the metal. It is possible to use other oils but this one doesn’t gum up or heat up as much as others. You need very little so a bottle should last many years.
Kintsugi materials, mixing oil
New workshop space, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi
Here is my new workspace, I will use it the first time for this upcoming workshop
October 2 — 18, 2020. 10 day workshop, Nara, Japan.
Oct 2 – 4 : Class
October 5 -6 break
Oct. 7 class
Oct 8 – 9 break
Oct 10 – 12 class
Oct 13-15 break
October 16 – 18 class
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Nashiji, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi
Kintsugi materials, nashiji lacquer. Nashiji is a thick lacquer that during processing is put into a centrifuge and the result is a very thick, strong, hard lacquer. It is used for filling large grained marufun metal.
Hemp fabric, traditional, lacquer based materials.
Kintsugi materials, hemp fabric
Hemp fabric can be used to strengthen large fill areas. It is embedded into the sabi mix and care must be taken so it is completely covered by sabi and the threads don’t stick out. It is best to use it in areas with some thickness as well as width. Not enough thickness will result in fibers being exposed which can’t be resolved easily without leaving a bump where the fill material will have to be used.
Brushes, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials
Kintsugi materials, brushes
Brushes are essential to a good final kintsugi look. There are several types of brushes for kintsugi. Most lines a medium to fine brush will suffice. Hairline cracks require a very fine brush. All are natural fiber and handmade in Japan. They should be cleaned with vegetable oil and stored with a very thin coating of oil which needs to be removed before use.
Ishiko, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials
Kintsugi materials, Ishiko
Ishiko is a type of powdered stone that is mixed with oil to polish graded, marufun metals but not fine, keshifun type powdered metals. It is rougher and cheaper than the other polishing powder, roiromigakiko but won’t give you as fine a polish as roiromigakiko. Ishiko is the 5th. step in the polishing process.
Red lacquer, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials
Red lacquer comes in many qualities and is a refined lacquer used as a binding lacquer for metal. The red I sell is triple ball milled.
Red lacquer is a high quality lacquer that can be polished out to a high sheen and dries to a harder, more durable surface than middle lacquers.
Polishing and sanding stones and papers, traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials
There are several steps in kintsugi where you need to either sand down or polish parts of the piece.
The initial use of sanding is after you have either stuck the pieces back together or done any kind of work wherein you have to smooth the seam. You can use either sand paper or specialized whetstone type materials. Sand paper is cheaper for the initial stages but as you fine tune your seams it is easier and more precise to use soft whetstones.
Soft whetstones come in the following meshes, #400 #600 #800 #1000 #1500 #2000 and #3000
There is almost no difference between the different meshes as far as appearance goes so I will just put this one photo up. If you have them you have to write on them the mesh as you won’t be able to tell them apart.
I use the meshes #400-#600-#800 to do only the roughest work on the seams. I never use these meshes on graded metals as they are too rough and will destroy the metal. If you use any of the soft whetstones on unglazed ceramic or directly on rough sabi you will wear them right out and have very little effect. You should use the rougher meshes to smooth out sabi but don’t expect them to last if the surface is very hard and rough.
I use the meshes #1000-#1500 to do the initial polishing of graded metals. Use #1000 delicately since it can rip the metal off the lacquer. The #1500 will shine graded metal to your final state. After that you need to use #2000-#3000 to polish away the scratches from the #1500 and get to almost your final shine.
Note that polishing metal is only for graded metal, not for fine powder. If you polish fine metal it will come off and you will ruin it.
Tonoko and jinoko Traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials
Jinoko and tonoko are 2 types of powdered, clay type materials used in kintsugi.
Jinoko is a powder and is a rougher grain. Tonoko is a mass and is a finer grain.
Tonoko has to be smashed to be used. The material itself is a finer mesh than jinoko although it looks like it is rougher since it comes in rock-like masses.
You use tonoko for making a mix called abura tonoko which is used for polishing graded metals. Graded metals are the rougher grades that start at #1 and go to #15. You can’t use tonoko for polishing the fine gold powder called keshifun. You use jinoko for making a mix called sabi which is used to do restoration work. It is mixed with water first and then lacquer.
There are many ‘recipes’ for sabi. I don’t use set proportions to mix sabi but I have seen suggestions of 2/jinoko to 1/water to 1/lacquer.
You use more jinoko to make your sabi stiffer if you like. That is, if you are doing restoration work you can add more jinoko to the mix and it will be a stiffer mix. If you use tonoko for mixing sabi often it will shrink more and crack requiring an additional applications to fill those cracks.
