u/Icy_Concentrate_486

This is a lacquer piece I made 9 years ago.

You can still see some imperfections in it. In order to speed up the process at that time, I only applied around 7 layers of lacquer, and some areas on the bottom were not polished evenly.

The large crack on the bottom comes from the wood joint. Over time, the natural expansion and contraction of the material caused it to split.

The small lines on the right side come from imperfections in the coating and polishing stages.

It is not a perfect piece, but I still use it every day.

It constantly reminds me of the core of working with urushi: patience, waiting, and giving full attention to every single step.

Built on a bamboo base, the piece is layered with black, gold, and red urushi lacquer in alternating coats. Raden shell is used to form the butterfly motif, with natural opal accents creating delicate pollen-like details. The surface is then carefully polished to a deep, reflective finish.

Lacquer doesn’t care about your schedule.
You apply a layer, and you wait. Sometimes for days, nothing really changes.

You come in the next day and nothing has changed.

When I first started 12 years ago, I honestly hated that part.

I didn’t plan to do this long-term. I just kept showing up, and at some point it became my daily work.

The final pieces usually look simple and clean. But the process isn’t. like that.

It’s a lot of waiting, repeating the same steps, and sometimes stripping everything down when something goes wrong.

I totally understand why people quit. It’s slow, unstable, and honestly kind of isolating.

There are much easier ways to make a living.

After more than a decade, it just became normal for me.

You stop trying to control it. You just follow what the material does.

I don’t really think about "tradition" anymore. It’s just work now.

And every piece ends up a bit different, because it’s all done by hand. Each piece, like me, is a unique part of this world.

Anyone else here working with slow or stubborn materials?
I’m curious how others deal with the waiting part in work like this.