KUTANI-YAKI CUPS

OBJECTS WITH UNIQUE FINISHES

Kutani objects are recognized for their beautiful design and elegant colors. Kutani's tableware has a special feature: the use of 5 colors called "Kutani Gosai" (green, yellow, red, purple and navy blue) with overprinted patterns for a very pleasant touch. Until the end of the Showa era, Kutani tableware was expensive and reserved for wealthy customers. In order to make it more accessible, painting printing techniques have been developed while retaining the beauty and texture of the hand-painted patterns.

PATTERNS MADE BY HAND THEN DIGITIZED

Each pattern is reproduced by hand on different transparent sheets affixed one on top of the other on the surface of the container to be baked in an oven at 900 ° C for about 6 hours. The cups usually have 10 layers, but for the more elaborate models, you can count up to 40 layers. Until the end of the Showa era, Kutani's tableware was reserved for a wealthy clientele and in order to make it more accessible, painting printing techniques were developed while retaining the beauty and texture of the paintings. hand painted patterns. LUPICIA was in charge of the design in co-development and created its own original patterns.

REPRODUCING THE TEXTURE OF THE PAINTING BY PRINT

If you look closely at the texture of the different paints applied to our cups, you will notice that the patterns are perfectly reproduced, with great dexterity, including in the lines that sometimes seem imperfect and the micro-reliefs of the paint. In order to maintain these irregular textures obtained when drawing with a brush, a printing plate which prints an uneven coating was specially created. As we have mentioned, the Kutani cups are composed of several layers, those made for LUPICIA have a total of 16 different layers.
INTERNALLY DEVELOPED JAPANESE PAINTING

The printing technique used in Seiko's manufacture is so delicate that it is impossible to distinguish the final rendering of a handmade painting. One of the characteristics of the texture of this paint (which is also a characteristic of Kutani's tableware) is that it has a thick texture. The director of the factory, Mr Keita Kitano, explains that "Japanese paint is like colored glass. By mixing various ingredients with original recipes, we develop our own paint with transparent tones and a thick texture." The paint has completely different colors before and after firing. Brown powder turns green when cooked, and pink powder turns yellow.

NO COMPROMISE ON QUALITY

Due to this design technique and the many colors used, imperfections (colors, designs ...) are likely to occur. After cooking, we therefore carefully check each of the cups. If something is wrong, everything is corrected by hand! Skilled craftsmen redraw each of the imperfect designs with a brush. There may be cases where out of 100 baked pieces, 100 pieces need to be corrected. Yet President Mr Kitano is proud of it and does not see it as a production anomaly. He explains that "if you think too far upstream about the rate of faults that could arise, it will influence the design and conception and we will stop at very simple things. It is the quality and the technical capacities of our craftsmen until 'to the final touch-ups to obtain a perfect product which are also the pride of our manufacture ".