ARC-26.03

LACQUER:

Blood before Gloss

The maker works this way from the very start, building layer after layer without ever seeing the whole piece at once. Memory takes over where sight ends. Grinding through darkness, layer after layer, slowly brings certain colours forward, while others stay resting beneath.

Lacquer does not become clearer simply by being worked on. A colour is laid down, covered in dark resin, and lost to sight until the surface is sanded back. What is hidden is not lost; it waits inside the work.

There is something familiar in that process, especially in youth: we spend our blood and restless energy long before certainty arrives; carrying certain parts of ourselves into the life ahead, and leaving the rest behind.

In lacquer, becoming visible is never the same as revealing everything.

ARC-26.03

LACQUER:

Blood before Gloss

Spice, Lacquer Accord,
Polished Wood, Moss, Benzoin