Martine Rey, an artist specializing in urushi lacquer, teaches kintsugi, the art of repairing both physical and symbolic wounds, using ancestral techniques. In Japan, lacquer is considered a prestigious art, an art of ornamentation that traditionally highlights the decoration of objects with the finesse of a goldsmith.
As a contemporary designer, Martine Rey quickly changed this approach. Rather than creating objects where lacquer would be a redundant or superfluous addition, she chooses objects with a history and seeks to transform our view of them by applying lacquer. Her goal is to give lacquer its full value as a precious material. She does not see it as a simple means of protection or decoration, but as a substance that gives ordinary, anonymous, abandoned and neglected objects the status of relics, talismans. Under the lacquer, these objects reveal themselves and unveil unsuspected depths.
For five days, she will introduce participants to this artistic profession and this natural lacquer with incredible properties.
At the end of the training, the trainee will be able to:
Become aware of the added value of urushi lacquer
Understand the advantages of polymerization
Prepare broken pieces to be sublimated
Repeat the steps dedicated to kintsugi
Apply metal powders
Apply finishing lacquers
Kintsugi, an art symbolizing the resilience and beauty of life's scars, transforms fault lines into lines of strength. Literally meaning "golden joint" in Japanese, kintsugi consists of restoring broken or damaged objects not by hiding their cracks, but by sublimating them with gold. This art celebrates imperfection and fragility, revealing the unique value of each fracture mark.
Through the technique of lacquer, through its labor, its slowness and its preciousness, Martine Rey evokes memories of the moments spent watching her mother tenderly mend the children's clothes. She remembers the wind pushing the clouds, the moments spent picking up stones that deformed her pockets.
Day 1
Morning and afternoon
Preparation day
History of Kintsugi with slideshow
Quick explanations of the specificities of the vegetable lacquer "urushi": from its characteristics, specificities of polymerization (and not drying) to its advantages
Preparation of KINTSUGI:
Objects to be glued back together: choice of the type of glue, evaluation of the "re-assembly" of the injured part, evaluation of filling in the case of missing parts (coatings, "patching" with another piece of ceramic, or glass or other)
Gluing of broken parts, first filling of small gaps
Demonstrations of different coatings based on lacquer and different fillers
Work on the maximum of selected parts to observe the time required for the lacquer to harden
(A part will be glued synthetically in order to be able to move on to the final stages more safely)
Days 2 and 3
Morning and afternoon
Work on all the operations dedicated to kintsugi and the progress of the pieces
Each piece is unique, each step will be carried out in a particular time…
Work on the coating to fill in the cracks and gaps, most often in several times (for lacquering the cracks, at least twice)
Applying metal powders (silver, pewter, bronze, or even gold if the ceramic piece is ready for this precious metal)
During the waiting times for polymerization, lacquering a wooden bowl and testing on paper, canvas, wood, ceramics as needed (repair, creation or embellishment)
Days 4 and 5
Morning and afternoon
Applying the finishing lacquers, on the kintsugi and small samples in order to see the stage of the final layers and the polishing, the final stage of any gold lacquer
KINTSUGI (gold joining)
The idea of Kintsugi is not to decorate, but to give back to the object the essence of its beauty.
KIN TSUGI gold joint, GIN STUGI silver joint, TIN STUGI with tin, URUSHI TSUGI lacquer joint, colored or not, YOBI TSUGI with ceramic shards)
*vegetable lacquer can cause allergic contact dermatitis (hence the wearing of gloves!), in order to reduce the possible effects you can take homeopathy one week before (then one week after)
For 40 years, Martine Rey's work, in perpetual movement, has explored space-time through urushi lacquer and the melancholy of objects dear to Japanese culture: Mono no aware.
The artist thus confronts a material whose application technique joins her own personal and artistic journey, that of patience and delicacy.
"I create objects that allow an emotional or even intimate bond between oneself and the object, an incessant quest for the lost object, and/or the one that has always been missing."
Martine Rey, a lacquer artist specializing in urushi vegetable lacquer, discovered this ancestral technique 40 years ago during her studies at the Kyoto University of Fine Arts in Japan, where she was trained by the master Shinkaï. This initiatory journey deeply influenced her artistic journey, revealing an intimate connection with Japanese culture. Since then, she has continued to reinvent this living material in her works.
After training in "European lacquer" at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués in Paris, she settled in Voiron, where she still lives and works today. In 1980, she founded the association LAC (Laqueurs Associés pour la Création), and taught vegetable lacquer at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et Métiers d'Art in Paris between 2002 and 2009. Her work is exhibited in France and abroad, and she has been selected several times for the Ishikawa Triennale. She has also been invited to the World Urushi Culture Council Symposium in Tokyo and to the International Fair of Lacquer and Painting Design in Ishikawa.
Far from limiting herself to the ornamentation of objects, Martine Rey uses urushi to transform ordinary objects into relics or talismans, revealing their history and hidden essence. Her approach is marked by an intimate connection with Japan and its aesthetics, notably the "poignant melancholy of things" (Mono no aware). Her creation is rooted in a quest for silent beauty, where the slowness and meticulousness of the lacquer technique mark the passage of time, making each gesture bearer of memory and sensitivity. For 40 years, she has explored this space-time, giving urushi lacquer all its depth and preciousness.
Martine Rey thus creates a shared space of discoveries and intimacies, a place where memories and gestures intertwine. This space unfolds through the multiple layers of lacquer, similar to palimpsests (manuscripts made of parchments reused after erasure of previous writings), deeply buried. Lacquer plays the role of witness to the passage of time, connecting the present to memory.
Martine Rey is represented by Galerie Sinople. A former resident of Villa Kujoyama, she is particularly sensitive to the transmission of her craft. She has a passion for Urushi lacquer.
She trains in kintsugi, the art of repairing wounds in the literal and figurative sense, using age-old techniques.
Price(s) including the cost of training, accommodation and full board, materials and personal protective equipment.