Asia Design Studio

    At Asia Design Studio, we're dedicated to providing you with superior quality lacquer artwork. In the pages that follow, you'll experience our exceptional selection, innovative design and commitment to quality. You will also get to know the art of Asian lacquer, the artist Na Winn, her visions and inspirations.

    We offer complimentary consultation and we'll be very happy to work closely with you in order to help you select the perfect piece for your home or office. You can choose among our collections or we can custom-create one to suit your taste and decor. Your home or office deserves quality art, especially something as unique as our museum-quality Asian lacquer pieces.

    So go ahead; reach out, have fun and select one. After all, you deserve it! Enjoy!

    Please contact at: (203) 434-2017 or e-mail at artdirector@asiadesignstudio.com

About Lacquer

    East Asian, or “true” lacquer (Japanese: Urushi) is derived from the sap of a deciduous tree – Rhus verniciflua – originally native to China and perhaps Korea and Japan. This plant is a member of the Anacardiaceae family, which also includes poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac. At any stage of the harvesting, refining, or lacquer-making process, contact or even fumes from urushi can cause an extreme allergic reaction. Those who work with raw lacquer must take precautions to inure themselves through exposure to small amounts in order to build up a tolerance. (The finished lacquer surface becomes completely inert once hardened, however, and will cause no adverse reaction even when used as tableware.)

    Lacquer is systematically harvested during the spring and summer months by making a series of small incisions in the lacquer tree’s trunk. The translucent, grayish brown, viscous sap is scraped into buckets and quickly covered for protection from light and contaminants. Urushi of the highest quality is tapped from the middle of the trunk and kept separate from the rest of the harvest, then systematically stained and filtered for use as the final, clear lacquer coating on finished objects. The rest of the sap is carefully refined and filtered using controlled heat and motion to remove impurities and excess moisture, and to blend in additives. After this initial cooking process, the urushi is graded for use and oils or colorants may be added. These colorants include precious and semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, umber, malachite, and coral, plus 22-carat gold and silver leaf, copper leaf, and composition leaf.

    The chemical composition of true lacquer – 60 to 80 percent urushioil (a pyrocatechol), 10 to 35 percent water, and small amounts of albumin and gum Arabic – help to explain some of urushi’s amazing plasticlike characteristics. When applied in a very thin (.05 to .03 millimeter) layer and allowed to cure under strictly controlled temperature and high humidity conditions, the lacquer undergoes an enzyme-catalyzed oxidation process that causes it to harden. Thicker coats of lacquer will never completely cure (the top layer will set but the urushi below will remain liquid) so that deep, lustrous surface can only be built up through the application of many thinner layers, each carefully burnished to ensure smooth adhesion. For one to five days between applications, lacquered objects must be allowed to harden inside a special cabinet, or furo, that maintains an even and high relative humidity, and then must be polished with increasingly fine abrasives to achieve a flawless, mirrorlike sheen. The finished work is essentially coated in natural plastic – durable, lightweight, and water-, acid-, and heat-resistant. The evolution of this ingenuous but labor-intensive technology allowed East Asian artists to create enduringly beautiful luxury items for their most discerning patrons.