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Shoji screen

This is the first of my standard design shoji screens. This is a fuki-yose design, and it stands 1400 mm tall. Each of the panels is 460 mm wide. I intend to make up another three or four screens of different designs, and have a collection of standard shoji screens at a set price that can be ordered through the website. These will be available in two, three and four panels. The two panel screens (ni-ren screens) will have an interesting feature at the front for holding small vases, photo frames or any other small object.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll set up a separate area of the website for sales. Here I’ll include much more detail about the screens, prices for each variation, and any other necessary information. This section will be in both English and Japanese

At this stage, the standard shoji screens will be kauri frame and Huon pine kumiko. The screen in the photo below has no finish applied. This is mainly the case for shoji in Japan. The frames are finished with a very, VERY sharp Japanese hand-plane. This gives a natural sheen to the timber without the “plastic” feel of a varnish finish. No sandpaper was used on the frame whatsoever, because while it may result in a smooth surface, it dulls the surface. Mind you, the hand-plane I use makes the surface very smooth, so the hand-planed finish will be standard.

More information will follow as I start to finalise minor details.

shoji_screen_fuki-yose_01
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Kiri-asa pattern

This is the kiri asa-no-ha — an attractive but quite a challenging pattern. It consists of a multitude of different jaguchi angles and kumiko angles. In fact I had to use all four of my ha-ganna planes for the different angles. Each of the bottom sections is held together by a single locking piece, so without the proper amount of tension on this piece, it would all fall apart.

The pattern is called
kiri (paulownia), but to me it also looks a bit like the leaves on a grape vine, while Wife and Daughter think it looks something like the face of a praying mantis. However, I think I’ll stick with tradition, and refer to it as kiri.

Kiri asa-no-ha

Next I’ll make up the overall frame and backing.
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Frame for new pattern

Today I finished the frame and jigumi for a new art piece that will feature the kiri_asa pattern. Kiri () is Japanese for the paulownia tree. As you can see by the jigumi, it’s a square pattern, and the kumiko are 3.2 mm (1/8 inch) thick (mitsuke). The vertical kumiko pitch is 15 mm, and the pitch of the squares that will house the kiri pattern is 60 mm.

This pattern is quite stunning when featured in a set of
shoin shoji doors. The one I’m making is an art piece and won’t be subject to the normal stresses of shoji doors, so I’ll be altering the cutting and assembly method slightly to speed up the process.

All kumiko pieces in the
kiri-asa pattern are secured in place by jaguchi joints (which can be seen in the square asa-no-ha pattern explanation) of differing angles, so it is quite challenging.

kiri_asa_frame

All going well, I should have it finished tomorrow, after which I’ll add an explanation to the Patterns page.
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