Sơn mài · Lacquer · Edition of 8
Offering bowl, indigo
Chàm — indigo; here ground into the lacquer for the deep blue the village uses on altar bowls.
Nguyễn Văn Thái
A turned jackfruit bowl in ten coats of lacquer: indigo ground into the resin for the outside, the deep blue the village uses on altar bowls; gold leaf inside, buried under three coats and polished back at the centre, where a hand would rest.
A bowl for fruit, for keys, for nothing at all.
- Materials
- Natural lacquer, indigo pigment, gold leaf inside, on turned jackfruit wood
- Technique
- Sơn mài — 10 layers; gold inside polished back
- Dimensions
- Ø 22 × 9 cm · Ø 8.7 × 3.5 in · 0.5 kg
- Edition
- Edition of 8 · Signed and sealed
- Made
- Hạ Thái, Thường Tín · 2026
The making
Nine weeks, in four movements
A bowl is a panel turned in on itself; the gold is where the polishing is hardest.
I
The form
Jackfruit wood turned and sealed.
II
The indigo
Four coats of indigo lacquer outside, each cured a week.
III
The gold
Leaf laid inside and buried under three coats.
IV
The polish
Polished by palm until the gold surfaces at the centre.
From the same village
