Pilot Namiki Yukari Maki-e Fountain Pen - Autumn Leaves

Pilot Namiki Yukari Maki-e Fountain Pen - Autumn Leaves. 

The barrel of Namiki Yukari Autumn Leaves depicts a beautiful autumnal scene with a pagoda among rolling hills and fall foliage in colored red and green urushi lacquer. The cap features a delicate branch with brilliant red maple leaves.

Namiki Yukari Autumn Leaves was made with the Togidashi Maki-e technique (Burnished Maki-e): after the background and scenery are painted with lacquer, gold or silver powder is sprinkled over it and it is sealed with urushi lacquer. After drying, the surface is lightly burnished with charcoal, revealing the design underneath. Autumn Leaves was created by Michifumi and Shotaku of the renowned maki-e artisan group Kokkokai.

Namiki's Yukari Collection illustrates natural imagery of the four seasons through various techniques, often in combination, including Togidashi Maki-e, or burnished-raised maki-e, and Raden. The making of a Maki-e piece is an extremely labor- and time-intensive process involving a repetitive series of applying layers of lacquer, drawing the design outline, sprinkling gold and silver powders to fill in the designs, and polishing to achieve a lustrous surface. The lacquered main design is filled in with the carefully sprinkled gold and silver powders, and then several additional layers of lacquer are applied. Once these layers harden, the surface is polished many times. A finished product can take up to 3 months, and some of the pieces go through the repetitive lacquer-drawing-sprinkling-polishing process up to 130 times. 

• #10 18k two-tone gold nib
• Screw-on closure
• CON-70 converter and blue cartridge included
• Bottle of Namiki blue ink included
• Comes in a velvet-lined wooden box with Namiki branding
• For a close-up and 360-degree view of the motif, feel free to refer to its listing on Pilot-Namiki's website here
• Lifetime warranty under Pilot
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