Lacquer Refurb
A little while back I had a startlingly cool find amid the usual lackluster Goodwill tchotchkes: a Chinese lacquer chest with an unusually colored crane pattern and a variety of intriguing drawers, priced a mere $6. It had a fair amount of surface damage, but I thought it was fascinating and rushed it home to my lair.
Here's how it looked when I found it:
At first I thought it was missing a top drawer, but on closer examination, I believe it once had a panel that closed off the front of the box and slid up into that top compartment (note that the cranes on the edge don't match the ones on the drawers).
It has a back panel with two "hidden" drawers:
In addition to the damage, the box had been spattered with some crusty mysterious white substance that proved difficult to remove, but I eventually got most of it off. I used acrylic molding paste to fill the major missing areas, restoring corners that had chipped away. After sanding the repairs, I touched up the fill and chips with acrylic paint. The repaired areas are still visible, but I'm okay with that...wabi-sabi. I buffed the transitions with silk to bring back the shine dulled by the sandpaper, then gave the whole box a light rub with olive oil, which made an amazing improvement in the evenness and luster of the finish. Here it is after refurbishment:
(the remaining white spots in these photos are due to shine from the flash)
It even has gold cranes painted on the insides of the drawers!
The lacquer is unusually brittle (even my careful handling kept causing additional chips), so I think I will have to use this box to store items I don't access very often. Nonetheless, I am very pleased with it! I love the blue-grey cranes delicately outlined with gold.
Here's how it looked when I found it:
At first I thought it was missing a top drawer, but on closer examination, I believe it once had a panel that closed off the front of the box and slid up into that top compartment (note that the cranes on the edge don't match the ones on the drawers).
It has a back panel with two "hidden" drawers:
In addition to the damage, the box had been spattered with some crusty mysterious white substance that proved difficult to remove, but I eventually got most of it off. I used acrylic molding paste to fill the major missing areas, restoring corners that had chipped away. After sanding the repairs, I touched up the fill and chips with acrylic paint. The repaired areas are still visible, but I'm okay with that...wabi-sabi. I buffed the transitions with silk to bring back the shine dulled by the sandpaper, then gave the whole box a light rub with olive oil, which made an amazing improvement in the evenness and luster of the finish. Here it is after refurbishment:
(the remaining white spots in these photos are due to shine from the flash)
It even has gold cranes painted on the insides of the drawers!
The lacquer is unusually brittle (even my careful handling kept causing additional chips), so I think I will have to use this box to store items I don't access very often. Nonetheless, I am very pleased with it! I love the blue-grey cranes delicately outlined with gold.