Wet clay applied to wood in ancient Chinese art form Coromandel

Coromandel is a Chinese art form used to decorate furniture. Themost common pieces that are decorated are screens, chests andoccasional tables. The technique involves applying layers of wet clayto the wood, baking them in order to harden the clay, then applyingseveral layers of lacquer. Once the lacquer dries, intricate patternsare carved on to the furniture, which is then painted with aprotective finish.

This process sounds simple when described, but in practice it isquite a complicated process. One screen takes four to six weeks tocomplete. Originally, the process took even longer when only onecraftsman did one piece. Now, several artisans work on one piece,almost in production line-type fashion, with the more complicateddesigns being done by the senior artisan and the less intricate partsby novices.

To complicate the process even further, the surface of Coromandelis both hard and slippery, requiring a highly trained person tohandle the carving knife. And therein lies the secret to determiningthe quality of the piece. Examine the lines in the pattern. Are thecurved lines flowing and smooth? They are harder to carve than thestraight lines, so there is one telltale sign to look for. Fine linesare tougher to achieve than the thicker ones.

If a Coromandel piece has a lot of broken lines in it, it is lessdesirable. The imperfections do not enhance this art, as is sometimesthe case in other artistic media. Broken lines in Coromandel indicatethat the artisan was inexperienced or that the mixture of clay hadtoo much water in it, making it susceptible to chipping and cracking.

It was in the Ming Dynasty that Coromandel was first created.

Rosemary Sadez Friedmann is president of Rosemary Sadez FriedmannInc. in Naples, Fla.

Scripps Howard News Service