Traditional Japanning Techniques Video Download

Craft a Compelling, Decorative Surface Japanning is a deep lacquer finish that originated as a European imitation of Asian lacquerwork. This video covers the steps to create a Japanned finish and goes a step further by adding a gesso and gold flake decorative accent. You'll learn:

• How to build up the multi-layer lacquer finish on a simple wooden box
• How to mix your own gesso for an applied decorative design and then shape it to suit
• The steps to create your own pigmented spirit varnish used to adhere the gold leaf
• About adding gold leaf and detailing your box
• And much more!

Once you start, you'll be Japanning many of your projects! Watch a Preview Now: About the Host: Don Williams is a conservator, educator and craftsman, having worked almost three decades as Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution. He has published numerous scholarly articles in addition to many in Popular Woodworking Magazine, and is working on a manuscript tentatively titled “The Period Finisher's Manual” to join his previous books: “To Make As Perfectly As Possible,” an annotated translation of J.A. Roubo's 1765 masterpiece “l'Art du menuisier,” “Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley,” and “Saving Stuff: How to Care for and Preserve Your Collectibles, Heirlooms, and Other Prized Possessions.