Today I'm very excited. Guess what? I can finally show you my second maki-e piece! Yay! It took more than one year to finish it because I didn't focus only on maki-e. During that time, I also repaired lots of broken china using the kintsugi technique.

Since it was so much fun to create that maki-e piece, I'd love to practice more. Maki-e is very similar to painting.

I'm sorry that I didn't take step-by-step pictures for this post but I took some, so I'd love to share them with you here.

I'm a quite beginner of this technique, so I didn't use pure gold powder. Instead, I used fake one. Even so, it turned into a beautiful piece. I'm quite satisfied with the result.

First, I trace a Japanese maple leaves pattern on the black porcelain plate. Then, I draw some leaves with lacquer.

When the lacquer becomes half-dry, I put different colored fake gold powder with a brush to create maple leaves. After the leaves drys, I draw veins with lacquer. When the veins become half-dry, I put gold powder again. I repeat this process.

After the plate drys completely, I wash away the gold dust.

I'd love to challenge myself with a more difficult, complex pattern next time!

(5119)