The Beauty of Traditional Natural Lacquer

19/10/2020 - Lacquer is always seen to be applied to traditional objects like bowls containers or geometrical shaped furniture, people might have an impression on its anti-corrosive surface treatment. 

However, a residential trip in Chinamade the MING Design Studio discover the unique charm of the lacquered process. Lacquer is a living material, color changes due to years of using.  "The longer, the better. Its color, layer of depth, texture, tactility, and production process, and the stories about it all deeply attracted us. But this material is gradually disappearing, not so many people recognize its value anymore, people think it is a paint, it is plastic. In reality, it is a natural material that can preserve your object for as long as possible. 

The craftsmen are living in a very bad condition, working in a very bad condition, I still clearly remember the working space has no air conditioner in summer, unbelievable.

Thanks to this trip, we re-recognize the ancient and natural material lacquer and hope to show the charm of lacquer to a greater extent through our design. We would like to showcase its beauty to bigger audiences."

MING DESIGN Studio designed and produced an organic wood shape to be used as the body of the lacquer, and adjusted the curvature of countless times to make the shape and lacquer combine to produce richer changes. "You should be able to inadvertently want to touch it while watching it." This is also a way they hope that everyone will establish an emotional connection with this design.  The BOLD STOOL series contain different ways of lacquer finishing, they submitted two versions, the Dark black one is mainly using the wipe coating technique, a few layers of lacquer coating, therefore the production time is shorter, while the dark red one is mainly using slip coating technique, and variable gradient coating technique, it has many layers of lacquer, thus production time is almost two months. this project challenged the craftsmen’s techniques and the understanding of lacquer. 

Special thanks to [FAN JIANJUN & CHIU FANCHIH LACQUERWARE STUDIO], after they spent a lot of time researching and overcoming the huge challenge of lacquering with an organic shape, the BOLD STOOL series was born.