As always the case with genuine Urushi pens, the intricate details give away the amount of passion and level of artistic excellence that an Urushi craftsman commits into anything that he creates. Each Urushi calligraphy pen contains a piece of the maker.
For this Peony-inspired Urushi oblique pen holder, it is clear that the artist poured his heart and soul! I have always been a fan of Urushi and this fulfills a dream of mine to own a fine art item that used this highly-revered Japanese lacquer art.
The Urushi pen maker sent this message to describe this marvelous artwork:
“The pen is made from century-old rosewood, finished with roasted quail egg shell inlay and Japanese-lacquered (Urushi). I painted the whole pen in order: raw lacquer, raw lacquer mixed with soil, brown lacquer and black lacquer. 2-3 layers of each kind. Then inlaid the quail eggshell followed by mother of pearl. Continuously covered it with black lacquer and polish until shells reappeared. After this, I touched up the details with black lacquer, real gold and silver dust and polished the pen using antler ash until everything is shiny. It is a very, very complicated process that it took me like 7-8 weeks to finish it. One layer needs 24-48 hours to dry in a humid box.”
