Sunday, November 23, 2014

The magic of shu!

"Shu" means vermilion, an ancient dye made of pulverized cinnabar. Cinnabar is a mineral that has been used for decorative purposes for millennia. It has grown especially famous as "Chinese Red" as it was mixed with urushi and used for all kinds of lacquerware.

I'm not sure if modern days's red urushi is still dyed with cinnabar but I like the looks. I'm really having a hard time deciding which finish and color I like best!

Here's two shu pens, one by Nakaya (in matte, unpolished texture), the other by Namiki. Enjoy! More pictures and details to come.

Nakaya Portable Cigar shu-nurippanashi; Namiki Yukari Royal vermilion.

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. lgreen666November 23, 2014 at 8:59 PM

    beautiful, all you need now is the vermillion urushi KOP for a perfect triptych

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MissElderberryNovember 24, 2014 at 6:28 AM

      True! I'm not a huge Sailor fan though. Not sure why. :)

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)