Sơn mài · Lacquer · Edition of 12
Low tray, red lacquer
Sơn mài — natural lacquer in many thin layers; here the red is the resin's own pigment, son, cinnabar ground into the lacquer.
Nguyễn Văn Thái
Ten coats of natural lacquer over a jackfruit board, the last four coloured with cinnabar ground into the resin — the red of the temple doors Thái’s grandfather gilded. Each coat cured a week in the cabinet and was sanded back under water before the next.
A tray for a table, a desk, a shelf: made to be used, and to be polished with a palm once a year.
- Materials
- Natural lacquer, cinnabar pigment, on jackfruit-wood board
- Technique
- Sơn mài — 10 layers, wet-sanded and hand-polished
- Dimensions
- 42 × 28 × 3 cm · 16.5 × 11 × 1.2 in · 0.8 kg
- Edition
- Edition of 12 · Signed and sealed
- Made
- Hạ Thái, Thường Tín · 2026
The making
Nine weeks, in four movements
A tray is a panel you can carry. The layers are fewer than a picture's, the patience the same.
I
The board
Jackfruit wood, dried a year, wrapped in cloth and clay.
II
The ground coats
Six coats of raw lacquer, cured and sanded back.
III
The red
Four coats of cinnabar lacquer, each cured a week.
IV
The polish
Polished by palm and charcoal until the red goes deep.
From the same village
