Timeless Crafts

Cloisonné/Enamel

Not indigenous to China, the Cloisonné technique was first brought in from the Arabian world/West Asia around the end of the 13th century when the Mongolian troops led by Genghis Khan conquered a large of Eurasia.

Cloisonné in China is separated into two main groups—The type that is used on bronze ware, vases or vessels, or the type that is used on accessories. They use slightly different techniques and materials.

Most of my cloisonné accessories are made using the Chinese filigree method, which uses an extremely laborious and traditional method of soldering the wire patterns together before putting the cloisonné in place. This technique is seen in many Byzantine enamels. However, the use of solder to adhere the cloison wires has fallen out of favour in the West due to its difficulty, with the exception of some “purist contemporary enamellists” who create fine watch faces and high quality very expensive jewelry. So instead of soldering the cloisons to the base metal, the base metal is fired with a thin layer of clear enamel.

In the traditional Chinese cloisonné accessories that I carry in my collection, they are pure silver base, decorated with silver filigree and cloisonné, and finally gilded with gold.

There are also mock cloisonné pieces in my collection which use alloy metals or bronze/copper/brass, and the cloisonné paste without firing, and a transparent coat over the surface to attain the glass-like texture.

Feather Inlay

The Kingfisher feather has been used by the Chinese to decorate their wares and accessories for thousands of years. It was, however, very much exclusive to the aristocrats.

In its initial stage, the demand for kingfisher feathers was low and thus sustainable. However, in the last few hundred years of imperial China, the Manchurian aristocrats loved the craft so much that they were making waves in the entire nation with this craft on their hats, earrings, accessories and anything that has a surface to be decorated.

In the end, the kingfishers were hunted to a point of endangerment and it has since then been banned as a craft.

The technique, however, can still be used for other types of feathers such as peacock feathers, dyed goose feathers, parrot feathers etc.

The peacock feather would have a natural iridescence akin to that of the kingfisher feather, although in a much darker shade.

The dyed goose feather and parrot feathers would have a uniform colour that would not change according to the varying angles and lighting conditions (unlike the actual kingfisher feathers).

We carry different shades and hues of blues/turquoise for our mock kingfisher feather accessories so you can pick which shade you like best. If you prefer to have the iridescence effect, then we have the peacock feather in two shades (one is more green and the other is more azure blue).

You can also customise the different designs based on your preferred choice of feathers. Please contact us at hanfugirl@gmail.com for further discussions.

Lacquer

Lacquer has a long history of over 7,000 years in East Asia.

Lacquer technique is also used for crafts such as kintsugi (the Japanese practice of mending broken ceramic pieces with lacquer and finally decorating it with gold foil/paint).

The technique of carving on thick lacquer began sometime during the Tang dynasty (circa 7th-10th century) and that is the most distinctive aspect of the Chinese lacquerware today compared to her neighbours.

We carry accessories made from vintage carved lacquer pieces, and if you would like to commission the vintage pieces into specific items such as necklace, earrings, rings, brooches, cufflinks, please email us at hanfugirl@gmail.com and we can take this discussion further.

Mother-of-Pearl inlay

The Mother-of-Pearl inlay is often set in lacquerware for the Chinese.

The Japanese calls it Raden and they have perfected the technique to have it weaved into threads of a fabric, or have it set on fabric as a soft mother-of-pearl inlay.

We occasionally chance upon beautifully painted vintage kimono fabric with mother-of-pearl inlays which we would repurpose into bags.

We also have developed a range of accessories using mock mother-of-pearl technique (we still use real mother-of-pearl except that we do not use lacquer to set them) which you will see in our shop.

If you would like to customise an actual piece of lacquer-set mother-of-pearl inlay accessory, please reach out to us at hanfugirl@gmail.com to explore this further.

Mulberry Silk

Silk is synonymous to China with over 8.500 years of history.

The Chinese mulberry silk is processed very differently and feels very different from the wild silk in other parts of the world.

It has a special lustre that is somewhat muted and exceptionally soft to the touch.

The Chinese has developed many ways of working with silk and decorating them. Silk threads can only be embroidered by hand as silk threads are extremely fine and easily frayed if dealt with too roughly (as in the case of machines).

Besides embroidery, the Chinese also has extensive ways of weaving silk which are lesser known as they are much more understated. Yet, these techniques are very much favoured by the ancient Chinese. These techniques would create subtle patterns on a fabric that one can only see up close and these nuances provide varying lustre and texture to an otherwise flat piece of silk cloth.

Gold prints, wax resist (similar technique as Batik) and clamp resist dyeing techniques were also popular ways of decorating the Chinese textiles for around 1,500 years until weaved gold technique was introduced sometime during the Mongolian rule (about 700-800 years ago).