186 : Process : urusHi series
urusHi series : Process : 187
Function Follows Form
Where other designers use function or
concept as a point of departure, Aldo Bakker
begins by determining the form of the
object he Wants to make.
Words Merel Kokhuis
Photos Erik and Petra Hesmerg
4. moulds
5. untreated side taBle.
6. saBi-ji (urusHi and wHetstone
Powder) used For coVering
PolyuretHane.
7. side taBle coVered in saBi-ji.
‘i see it as a weakness wHen an
oBject witH Form, dimensions
and colour needs to HaVe a story
to Be conVincing’
1. drawing.
2. rendering.
‘I see it as a weakness when an object with form,
dimensions and colour needs to have a story to be
convincing. Anyone can come up with a function. But
to create a relationship between that function and the
whole – the colour, the size, the weight, the form, the
users – is a many-layered journey.’ The speaker is Aldo
Bakker. His Urushi Series consists of a side table, three
stools (numbered 1, 2 and 3) and a low table. Because his
approach to design addresses form first, material second
and colour third, Bakker explains his latest pieces in the
same order in which he tackles these three aspects of
his work.
Form
As an instructor at the DAE, Aldo Bakker tells his students
that form is the most crucial element of a design. ‘Form had
fallen sharply into disfavour – was seen as nothing other
than a means of decoration,’ he says. ‘And that’s a shame,
because without thinking about form, you can never reveal
the soul of a design.’ Bakker’s designs begin with a form.
‘I pick up something somewhere, and for a while I simply
mull it over in my mind. It’s all about my fascination for that
smidgen of shape. It’s hard to explain. Everything in my
work is interrelated. Time and time again, I select the same
sort of things.’ One result is a strong, personal language
of form with a marked resemblance to that of his mother,
the late Emmy van Leersum, jewellery designer. ‘I didn’t
make a deliberate decision to use her signature; I inherited
it. What I did quite consciously choose to nurture and to
apply to my work were the patience and the precision
present in Emmy’s character. As a result, people see me as
the very picture of serenity, but the opposite is true. When
you’re as precise as I am, you force yourself into impossible
3. PrototyPe.
positions and often raise the bar to an unattainable height.’
Funnily enough, Bakker frequently thinks he’s come up
with something new, only to discover later that he’s used
the same design language once again. Not a problem, he
says. On the contrary. He likes the idea of a designer with
a distinctive trademark, a recognizable style that returns
in one design after another. It’s nice for the public, but it
also benefits the designer – it’s a way for him to learn more
about himself and his work. The Urushi Series, too, started
with a recognizable Bakker form. ‘I’d been thinking about
a certain form for some time, one in which a very clean line
leaves its continuous mark on the design as a whole.
I wanted to accentuate that line.’ His designs are meant
to raise questions and, at the same time, to answer them.
In this case, Bakker explored how far he could go with
a large, rather cumbersome volume supported by small,
fragile legs.
mATeriAl
‘Someone once asked me to think about how to cover
a piece of furniture. I had few restrictions; it didn’t have to
be done with fabric. After deciding that you need at least
two types of material to cover furniture, I focused on finding
the perfect combination.’ Bakker’s latest designs are
finished in an organic sap – or lacquer – known as urushi.
For over 9000 years, urushi has been tapped from the
lacquer tree and used to finish everything from tiny bowls
to complete buildings, inside and out.
Bakker was introduced to urushi by artist and
conservator Mariko Nishide (1952), who was born in
Saitama, Japan, and currently lives and works in the
Netherlands. Nishide not only uses urushi in her creations,
but also works as a restorer and curator of lacquer-
finished pieces. ‘She is the only professional urushi artist
of Japanese origin in Europe, and she accompanied me to
Japan,’ says Bakker. It’s there that he saw the surprising
depth of a surface treated with urushi, a depth that neither
paint nor other types of lacquer can achieve. Another
advantage is that with urushi, the artist or designer can
vary the intensity of the colour. ‘Making surfaces darker or
lighter,’ says Bakker, ‘allows me to emphasize the forms in
my Urushi Series even more.’ Combining polyurethane foam
and urushi also let him unite a new material with
a traditional Japanese craft. ‘Polyurethane is nice to work
with. It’s available in countless concentrations, from light
and porous to heavy and extremely dense. What’s more, it’s
a dead, nondescript material. Finding a way of combining
polyurethane with an ancient organic substance like
urushi – used to make some of the oldest objects found in
Japan, so you can imagine how strong it is – posed a real
challenge.’
coloUr
In its natural state, the lacquer is a transparent shade of
brown. Almost any pigment can be added to urushi. Bakker
selected colours that would enhance the contours of his
designs. The lacquer lends depth to an object, optically
adding a third dimension to the flat surface. ‘Ultimately,
Stool no2 will be ice-blue,’ says the designer. ‘At the
moment it has a greenish tinge, because the colour is still in
the process of changing.’ According to Nishide, the process
takes at least several years. The vibrancy of the colour
depends on the amount of pigment added to the lacquer.
Over a period of time, the urushi becomes more and more
transparent, visually intensifying the pigment. The ice-blue
that Bakker is aiming for will continue to change, but as
time passes the alteration will slow until it’s all but
invisible to the naked eye. Even though a sort of saturation
point is reached, the transformation never comes to
a complete standstill. Urushi is and remains a wholly
natural product subject to outside influences.
‘Stool no1 is black,’ says Bakker. ‘The dark colour brings
out the shiny surface and underlines the rounded, bulky
form of the stool. Not only that – the stool’s gleaming skin
also absorbs the surroundings. For the Side Table, I wanted
a kind of deep fleshy pink. The fat belly suggests a fifth leg,
and the upper part of the legs dip down to meet the belly
again. The table has a human or bestial aspect to it – that’s
why I chose pink.’
FUTUre
‘The market has to get used to the forms, materials and
colours. These are unprecedented designs. But the pieces in
this collection could breathe new life into a time-honoured
Japanese technique,’ says Bakker. The Urushi Series
recently appeared in SuperStories, an exhibition at Z33 in
Hasselt, Belgium, where Bakker collaborated with artist
Germaine Kruip, who created the ceiling light installation.
The pieces are also scheduled to be shown at a gallery in
Tielrode, Belgium, operated by Sophie Lachaert and Luc
d’Hanis, and, in April 2010, at the Milan furniture fair. Later
this year, Japanese manufacturer Tetsuo Gido will begin
producing Bakker’s Urushi Series. Thanks to the intensity
and complexity of the process involved, however, massproduction is out of the question. Each object is unique.
aldobakker.com
188 : process : Urushi Series
Urushi Series : process : 189
8. Urushi being tapped from the lacquer tree.
10. Application of urushi.
URUSHI
Urushi is the sap of the lacquer tree,
Rhus verniciflua, a native of glossyleaved forests in the temperate regions
of the Himalayas. Today the lacquer
tree, which prefers a warm climate,
is found in countries such as Japan,
China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Burma,
Cambodia and Bhutan.
Each lacquer tree produces either male
or female flowers. The female tree
produces seeds that are rich in plant
wax, but its trunk contains a smaller
amount of sap. The seeds are fed to
domestic animals and used to make
candles. The male tree produces no
seeds but a greater supply of urushi.
Timber from the trees, lightweight and
durable, has been used by fishermen for
floats and stakes.
The bark of the male tree is softer than
that of the female tree. The softer the
bark, the more urushi. Because it is a
weak tree with a soft bark, when the
trunk has been damaged, the tree is in
danger of rotting as the result of rain,
mould and fungi. In an attempt to fight
this rotting process, the wound produces
a liquid with sterilizing properties that
dries fast and solidifies, even in humid
air. The resulting scab is resistant to
acid, alkali, oil, high humidity and
extreme temperatures. Recent studies
have shown that the substance
produced kills various types of bacteria,
including salmonella, colon bacillus
and yellow staphylococcus. A surface
treated with urushi is free of bacteria
within 24 hours and remains relatively
sterile long after the urushi has dried.
Japanese lacquer trees reach a height
of 3 m in 15 to 20 years. When the trunk
is between 15 and 20 cm in diameter,
the urushi is tapped; the Japanese term
for this process, in which small cuts
are made in the bark, is kakitori. The
process is repeated every four to five
days from mid-June to late October.
A total of 700 to 1000 incisions are made
in each tree; at the end of October, one
final cut encircling the entire trunk
draws the very last drop of sap from the
tree before it dies. Depending on its size,
one lacquer tree produces a mere 150 to
250 cc of raw urushi.
From bare polyurethane piece to sabi-ji-covered object to final result: a stool
with a gleaming urushi finish.
9. Preparing for the application of urushi.
‘For a long time, form was seen as nothing
other than a means of decoration’
11. Completed Side Table.