Wood furniture polishes and wood furniture care

We carry two main brands of wax polish for furniture. Both are hard wax polishes.

1. Golden Rooster is domestic brand which seems to be partnered with Kiwi. While this works fine, there is chemical smell to the wax which I personally find undesirable. It relatively inexpensive.
2. Harrell’s Traditional Wax Furniture Polish contains beeswax and is a bit more expensive but is an imported brand which has been around for over 75 years. It is a well known brand and many professional restorers prefer this wax. Its available in 5 colors (Antique - Khaki - Colorless - Red Mahogany - Georgian Mahogany) though we may not always have all colors in stock.

Golden Rooster (domestic brand which seems to be partnered with Kiwi).

Harrell’s Traditional Wax Polish

A bit about wax polishes

Waxes are generally grouped according to their origin with the main types being:

continued....

Read the rest of this post on our main blog.

A true work of art - The making of a Chinese lacquered room divider.

Today, we give you a detailed glimpse into the workshop of an artist craftsmen and let you see the many steps required to create a perfect lacquer painting.

Note: The large versions of these photos are online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acf-china/2243528705/

The art of lacquer painting is a ancient one, originating in China thousands of years ago. In the Neolithic age (about 7,000 years ago), while cutting down trees, the precursors to Chinese people realized that the sap of the lacquer trees could be applied to walls, furniture and other objects, thus giving birth to primitive lacquer art. Painting with lacquer is a meticulous and time-consuming process which most people fail to realize or appreciate. It is a very meticulous labor of love to create a lacquer painting and the process can take at least several weeks or in the case of a series of panels, more then several months to complete. Lacquer paintings & screen panels are traditionally created in three styles which correlate to the color of the paintings background:

1. Gold leaf
2. Deep black
3. Vermilion.

There are other exceptions such as silver background but these are less uncommon.

Step one: Preparing the surface.

1. Like an artist preparing a canvas, the process is very similar only in this case the painting is done on wood. Normally solid wood is NOT the best choice for these and most vendors will use “plywood” which is less likely to expand or contract (any cracks would ruin the painting). First, a piece of wood is prepared by sanding.
2. The board is covered with a piece of fine white muslin cloth which is glue down on the board. This fabric serves a duel purpose in that should the wood crack or expand the cloth wrapped around it will remain relatively stable (and thus the fragile lacquer will not crack or become damaged).
3. Then the cloth is brushed a layer of “nizi” - a kind of Gesso or base adhesive and is then left for the adhesive to air dry for a short period of time.
4. This covering of adhesive is then sanded smooth to eliminate any bumps or ridges.
5. This entire process is then repeated so that there is at least several coats of sanded “nizi.

Step two: Preparing the black base surface.

1. next step brushed a coat of a specially prepared binding agent made from red lacquer flakes which are dissolved in thinner. This binding agent helps the next coat of black lacquer to soak into the cloth below.
2. After a thin coat its left to air dry for a short period of time.
3. Then brushed on top with a coat of black lacquer at least two times and left to dry completely - normally about three days depending on the weather and humidity.

Step three: Laying down the gold leaf.

1. Extremely thin square sheets of gold-leaf tissue (or im some cases silver) placed over-top of the black lacquer and affixed with glue. Generally the final painting will occur over TOP of the gold leaf. This is what creates the vivid yet subtle color effect you can see on the end painting.
2. If desired, these thin sheets of gold leaf can be wrinkled slightly when they are applied which achieves an aged effect small bits of the black underneath will then show through when it is sanded one last time with a sheet of extra fine sandpaper.
3. This is again left to air dry for a short period of time.

Step 4: Tracing out the design.

1. First, a traditional design is selected often from a painting or book.
2. Then a sheet of white tracing paper with a pattern with small holes (basically these are the tracing lines) in the paper is tacked/taped onto the panel.
3. A special fine talcum like powder is evenly sprinkled over the tracing paper which then sifts through the holes in the tracing paper onto the surface underneath.
4. When the tracing paper, is then removed the patterns remain on the panel seen as a series of fine dotted outlines.

Step 5: The painting

1. Now we start painting. The painter uses white lacquer to rough out the outlines of the forms in the painting.
2. The colors are applied one by one, layer upon layer until the tones are built up.
3. After the painting has dried, the artist will brush over it with a clear coat of lacquer . This process leaves a brilliant surface on a painting and also adds additional protection.

Finished! The end result is a beautiful work of art!

If you want to learn more check out this article on Chinese Mosaic Lacquer Paintings

Basic guide to recognizing Tibetan antique furniture - Part 1

"Tibetan" style furniture is a phrase used loosely and frequently items made just yesterday are placed side by side with items 50 or 80 years old. Of course, all are claimed to be real "Tibetan Furniture." So when it comes to so called Tibetan" items, its important to know just what is is that you are actually purchasing and (hopefully) later on selling to your customers. So, without further ado, we will start off a series of posts to help you better understand and demonstrate the differences in the low end, the fake and even the good stuff!

An comparison of styles

Botellas Chinas Del Rapé: Artículos Coleccionables

Article in Spanish/Español...

La botella del rapé es probablemente uno de los artículos más pequeños y a la vez más buscados entre antigüedades chinas. Las botellas del rapé fueron utilizadas por el chino durante la dinastía de Qing para contener el tabaco en polvo. A mediados del siglo dieciseis hasta finales del mismo el uso del rapé y de las botellas del rapé fueron introducidas a la personas de clase alta, y antes del fin del décimo octavo siglo la costumbre se había transmitido hasta el resto del país y en cada clase social. ¡Era incluso común ofrecer una pizca del rapé como manera de saludar amigos y a parientes! Claro, no vayan a pensar que escribo este blog para promover el tabaco, sino cabe destacar que durante este periodo en China las botellas del rapé se convirtió en un objeto de la belleza y una manera de representar la clase social. Las botellas fueron hechas para ser sostenidos y por eso, en general, una buena botella del rapé debe tener una calidad táctil maravillosa. Para la mayoría, es aquel tacto y belleza que estimula esa interes en botellas del rapé.

http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/2008/02/19/botellas-chinas-del-rape-articulos-coleccionables/

Year of the Rat starts - Springfestival

full article on : http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog

Year of the Pig ends and year of the Rat begins on febraury 7^th 2008 till January 26^th 2009

“Springfestival” or “Chinese Newyear” is nowadays well known in the West as well, though only experiencing it yourself will show you how important it is for the Chinese. The impact is huge, surely with the role China is playing in world trade nowadays. During 3 to 4 weeks 80% of the country is on holiday, so the buyers in the West prepare/plan ahead!

A definition :

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (simplified Chinese: 春节; pinyin: Chūnjié), or the Lunar New Year (simplified Chinese: 农历新年; pinyin: Nónglì xīnnián), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays and an important holiday in East Asia (and celebrated largely by overseas Chinese). The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called the Lantern festival (simplified Chinese: 元宵节; pinyin: yuánxiāojié).Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as Chúxī (除夕). Chu literally means “change” and xi means “Eve”.Lunar calendar :The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines Chinese New Year dates : starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon, ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. (each lunation is about 29.53 days).


In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20.What happens :The period around Chinese New Year is also the time of the largest human migration, when migrant workers in China, as well as overseas Chinese around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year’s eve. More interurban trips are taken in mainland China in this 40-day period than the total population of China.No need to say how long the lines are to buy a ticket for public transport … IF you even manage to buy one.What else happens :

• Very important is that Chinese should SPEND money during this period! Everyone is supposed to buy a whole new set

Carving Vs. CNC

original post is here : http://www.acf-china.com/blog/?p=93

Last week we went to an exhibition of new classic Chinese furniture. There were not only factories of furniture, but also those selling frightening robot-like CNC machines… It made me wonder if hand labor is even in threat of becoming abundant even here, even in this workmanship, even in art …
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There is no doubt, those CNC (computerized numerical control) are pretty impressive. It seems it can produce almost any shape at a preciseness that can not be achieved by the human hand.Here is my first point of skepticism. What is woodcarving about? About the value of the labor, the skill of hand carving, or only about how fine the result is? There is a certain kind of coldness to a perfect picture, a computer made drawing. It is an art form, just like painting. Why don’t we hang computer-made print-outs on our wall instead of gouache paintings? This point proves that hand carvings will never be completely replaced.


Now a more practical remark is that : computers do not make designs, artists/craftsmen do. Knowing that carving has a lot of cultural identity in it, every region has its style (even a craftsmen family) and carries a signature, is unique. Those styles have been passed on for generations. Now who is going to make the CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings, the blueprints for what the CNC makes?Also making such CAD is very labor intensive. (Those who are good at making them have a very technological background.) It must take maybe even longer to design a carving on a computer then having a craftsmen actually sculpting his piece of wood. Once a computer design is made it can be reproduced a hundred thousand times … that is true … Then we are moving towards mass productions, towards “IKEA-carvings”.
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Nevertheless we are happy with the development of the CNC. It can do amazing things. And in fact does increase the value, the appreciation of the carving made by artisan craftsmen. On the long term, hand made carving will become a luxury, expensive art. As for the antiques, the same counts, people will realize the amount of work put into certain pieces. It took us more than a thousand years to build a machine that can do almost the same.
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It would be interesting to know the opinion of other people. So I hope to read a lot of comments on this post !
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On the internet I have found some articles about this matter :
An inexpensive computerised numerical control (CNC) machine has helped start a new production woodworking business. The company produces complicated architectural ornamentation that was up till then mostly made by skilled craftsmen working with power tools. There is a substantial market niche for producing decorative woodcarvings faster, cheaper and at higher levels of accuracy.
Low-cost CNC machines can accurately duplicate a computer aided design program in much less time than someone working by hand.Although clearly a skilled job, making complicated pieces such as carved mouldings and friezes is a very slow process by hand.The first piece is typically assigned to a very experienced and highly paid craftsman, who cuts it out with hand and power tools, then less experienced workers typically duplicate the piece using a tracer.One problem with this approach is that even the most skilled woodworker has difficulty accurately producing three-dimensional contours.The result is a piece that requires extensive finishing by hand, to chisel and sand the piece the way a customer wants it finished.
The beauty of a CNC machine is that every detail of the piece can be defined to absolute perfection in the CAD/CAM software and allowing time for the operator to do something else while the machine produces the part.While the CNC machine isn’t perfect, the accuracy of the machines is far beyond what can be achieved by hand.However, every piece made will be just as good as the first one such that each piece coming off will need little hand finishing.
While programming is a labour-intensive process similar to cutting out the first piece by hand, …
Read the full article here : “CNC machines bring down carving costs”