The Story of Lacquer and Lace

The Story of Lace

I started using lace as an alternative to linen for reinforcement because of my best friend’s wedding. I wanted to give the newlyweds a pair bowls but I wanted them to be able to distinguish between the two. In Japan the female’s bowl is smaller than the male’s but I wanted them to be the same size. I decided to use some lace that I had bought in Paris to show the difference. I really liked the texture created by the lace so I continued to apply different kinds of lace to wooden bowls using tame-nuri to highlight the patterns. After a while I began to wonder if I could make bodies out of just lace using the kanshitsu technique and I succeeded in making a brooch but I didn’t like the edgeswhere the lace had been cut so my next project was a small incense container where I inlaid linen string around the edges to overcome the rough finish. My next challenge was to make something bigger than the width of the lace and I created windows in a kanshitsu body and inserted panels of lace into them.