the journey to reach shikkui (in short)

I have worked as a decorative artist for thirty years - when I started, I diligently ground my earth pigments and mixed them down with casein, egg yolk, boiled linseed oil etc etc.. I then became lazier and the raw ingredients became less easy to locate especially in a hurry... and aren't we always in a hurry- gone are the days when I could prepare a surface for a week. ' Hobbies-R-Us' and their awful ilk have chased the decent independent art supplies off the high street. I am still slightly averse to buying pigments and sundries over the net. I love to see what I'm buying - Cornelissen's is an Alladin's cave.

A few years ago, I started to look in ernest at what I was applying to the interior spaces of peoples homes and work places - I have lost any idea of what this chemical additive in paint or that chemical would or wouldn't do. The other occupiers of my home suffered from a range of atopic allergy. I looked into using lime washes and/or fresco. This led me to a noble decorative and functional surface, it was a Moroccan polished plaster called 'Tadelakt' - or 'caressed plaster'. The high alkaline content of this lime and marble based plaster created a surface hostile to the growth of mold, fungi, bacteria and virus - many of the aggravators of allergy. By applying a final coat of marseilles soap - through the natural chemical reaction between the soap and lime, saponification, a hygienic and hydrophobic surface was created. In this age of nora virus, MRSA and Closteridium difficile, why aren't all hospital wards clad in these plasters?

We in Northern Europe have known for centuries the benefits of lime but have abandoned it in preference for the short-term cheapness of gypsum plaster. Maybe if we had cultivated a style of interior that honoured and celebrated the virtue of lime plaster - we might have had a tradition beyond Scagliola. Seeing as we have plundered most of the world I wonder why we have not brought home this regal tradition of polished plaster - is it just a lack of availability of marble? maybe if it is commonplace you can afford to be experimental and irreverent with it - slap the chaff in with a bit of plaster and see what happens. Has freight, central heating, down lights and our new mass obsession with interior design meant that these sleek finishes are now suitable and practical in our once gloomy and damp interiors.
The Egyptians, Moroccans and much of the Mediterranean basin, the Aztecs, South India have/had a version of polished surface - often used within palaces and temples. China, with all of its resources has a lime based dull grey plaster that you cannot polish, they have no marble deposit. Across a small stretch of water Japan has had a wealth of lime based plaster finishes that have been perfected over the last 1500yrs and they have an abundance of marble. Eggshell, limestone and marble are all forms of calcium carbonate, it is all a matter of the level of pressure and heat applied at the time of its creation that denotes what is the final result. The cycle of lime is a truly marvellous phenomena. Calcium carbonate once heated becomes calcium oxide, slaking creates calcium hydroxide, allowed to air dry creates calcium carbonate again ad infinitum.Japan's master craftsmen have created a plethora of styles - utso and shikkui being the most common. The essential ingredients are slaked lime, seaweed extract for plasticity, jute fibre for strength and flexibility and marble flour for form and decorative polishability.

Dean Reynolds and I travelled to Tagawa to meet the President of a 3rd generation family run business called  Nobuyoshi Yukihira san. His business, Tagawa Sangyo is at the forefront of sustainable and innovative product design. Many of their shikkui plasters have remarkable, unique, functional and aesthetic qualities.