#8: Lots of commissions!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at KJ which is absolutely lovely. I didn’t get a chance to do an update last week because I had a few new things come in and I just didn’t have time. That’s, unfortunately, the thing that I’m struggling with at the moment as business picks up. I’ll always prioritise the actual work because it’s the part I enjoy the most and at the end of the day, it’s what I’m being paid to do. It does mean that sometimes the blog or instagram might not get as much attention though!

Last week I made the exciting purchase of some cardboard boxes! Two of them were for stock and practice pieces and the third was for a more dedicated and less scabby muro. A muro is a vaguely climate controlled, breathable, humid box which is used to cure pieces in once they’ve been glued together or lacquered. Traditionally, a muro would be constructed of wood and look like a cupboard but a cardboard box works similarly because it’s breathable and can absorb excess moisture from the atmosphere. I’ve placed a plate at the bottom with a damp tea towel on it which creates a humid environment. Moisture is necessary because urushi cures from contact with humidity rather than heat, time or evaporation. I tested out curing things in drawers initially but didn’t have the same reliable success that I’ve have with the cardboard box.

So, the Bordallo Pinheiro olive dish is almost finished now. I added gold to the underside of the dish last week and gave it a check over on Sunday. the gold had adhered well and burnished beautifully but there were a few small bald spots that I wanted to touch up so I did those and put it back into the muro for another week. After that, I’ll give it another thorough check over before adding the sealing layer of ki-urushi and leaving it for a week and returning it!

There’s a tiny dot of lacquer visible where the gold hasn’t adhered on the edge.

A new cup arrived that the client had made on a trip to Kyoto which was a nice wee connection. I’ve completed a few traditional repairs on personal pieces but this will be the first fully traditional repair that I’ve completed for a client and it’s going well. The pieces went back together without any issues and the ceramic is nice and dense so there aren’t any hairline cracks which has been a common feature on pieces recently. It’s currently in the muro curing and should hopefully be ready by next weekend for a bit of tidying up. The bottom of the cup isn’t glazed so rather than risk any staining I’ve taped it up completely which seems to be working fine. I actually think blue tac would work well for that type of masking as it will stick easily, is re-useable and is very malleable.

I also have a couple of glass commissions on the go at the moment. One is a pint glass with a simple break and the other is a more complicated vase with a shatter base. I’ve recommended resin repairs for both as I think that a clear join looks better for glass and would be more durable although I’ll need to try a traditional repair at some point for comparison. The pint glass has been done with foodsafe resin which has a longer cure time than the stuff I usually use

The yellow tape initially holds this together and the black tape is sort of binding everything and maintaining the shape of the glass.

The vase is a much more complicated job due to the number of pieces that the base broke into but should be do-able. I’m waiting to hear from the client about what finish they’d like before getting started on the actual repair. There are a few small missing pieces that I’m going to have to fill with milliput but that shouldn’t be an issue.