This week I am guest blogging on the The Book and Paper Gathering, a site which delivers conservation information in a light-hearted, easy-to-digest manor. A conservation magazine, rather than a peer reviewed journal. It is well worth spending some time reviewing their previous posts.
The Most Beautiful Tool in the World: A Japanese Burnisher
Exactly twice in my life I’ve seen a tool and immediately felt such a keen a desire to possess it that my secular observance of the eighth commandment was severely tested.
Drooling over Robert Minte’s collection of Japanese hera at the Bodelian Library in 2010 was the first time. They were so elegant, simple, beautiful — perfect tools, I thought. It was the longest flight of my life back to New York City, my fingers itching to make some for myself. Over time, I learned more about bamboo, shaping bamboo, and continue to keep making them today.
The object of desire the second time was also a Japanese tool, though in this case a burnisher, and… READ THE REST AT THE GATHERING
Peachey Conservation 