Danitrio makes special pens using the Japanese skill and craftsmanship that has been mastered over the last few thousand of years. One of their lines of pens is the “Urushi-e” Urushi pen without gold powder sprinkling. The painting on the pen is more subtle than some of their other pens, yet equally special. The base of this pen is painted with traditional urushi painting. It is then finished with delicate paintings of wildflowers and vines on the barrel and cap. This collection is unique because gold powder dust is not applied throughout the painting process, giving the pens a more matte finish. This pen is filled via cartridge convertor and has an 18kt gold nib.
Craftsmen call Urushi is a living thing. Its qualities differ even from the same trees, but quality is different from the trunk or branches. Different qualities from different trees or different areas or countries. Then, crude Urushi must be refined to make more than 10 different qualities of Urushi for different usage. Now craftsmen have to pay more than $600.00 per pound for genuine Japanese Urushi, $250.00 for Urushi imported from China. They use it in different occasions and different places, while manmade Urushi or plastic paint only cost a few dollars a pound. Genuine Urushi is like pure gold only for fine jewelry and pure gold is too expensive for cheap works with cheap materials.
The base for Urushi paintings must be smooth and strong in order to have a good Urushi painting, which will last thousands of years. When the base is ready for painting, the first painting uses Sabi, Urushi mixed with polishing powders, as its base painting and call it Shita-nuri, the base painting. Then, Naka-nuri, the interim painting with Urushi is preparing for better Uwa-nuri, the finishing part of painting. The color of the interim painting has to be selected according to the color of the finishing part of painting. All these works are usually done by Nu-shi, craftsmen of Urushi paintings, painting 7 times in average and it takes 2-3 weeks before the Nu-shi can send back the pens to our Maki-e sh, who will do more Urushi painting works or Maki-e onto the pens.
MSRP $2000.00
