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■ Furniture (tables, benches, work tops, shelving units). The waney or natural edges left on boards add a visual softener to the lines and give the furniture a more organic feel. A trip to a wood company that cuts their own boards from logs will usually turn up some very interesting board shapes. The furniture can then be made to enhance the natural shape of the board. ■ Furniture from reclaimed sea defense timbers found in docks, ports, and protected seashore areas. Greenheart and other such timbers that have spent years being eroded by the movement of the sea have some exceptionally attractive shapes, and these can be incorporated into interiors or gardens. They can be cut into more usable sizes for making lamps, vases, bowls, and the like; used as accent pieces on their own; or incorporated into other furniture designs. Care should be taken with greenheart as it has an unpredictable grain and an exceptional blunting effect on tools. ■ Furniture from reclaimed railroad ties. Different from the sea defense wood in the way it has been eroded, it can be used in many of the same ways. An example might be a simple bench made by cutting two sections for the legs and then using the rest for a bench top. A wide variety of timbers have been used for railroad ties ranging from treated pine to teak. Untreated hardwoods are more pleasant to work with and generally have more attractive patinas. Also care should be taken to avoid any grit or stones that have become lodged in the wood. ■ Bamboo crafts for internal fittings, garden dividers, vases, lamps, and so on. There are many kinds of bamboo including an attractive black bamboo that can be used in place of poles such as curtain rods. When using bamboo it is important that it has been well seasoned to reduce splitting. Scorching the bamboo with a flame darkens the bamboo and can add greatly to its visual appeal. Metal Metals containing iron are very vulnerable to corrosion and color changes, and as they are radically different in feel and texture they provide a good contrast to the other more naturally occurring materials used in wabi sabi. The iron kettle used in the tea ceremony is an example of the way in which the beauty of metal’s impermanence is highlighted and prized. With the passing of the years the slow corrosion on the metal’s surface will become more pronounced, as will the vast array of subtle hues within the surface. The range of colors this produces and the resultant pitting of the surface epitomize wabi sabi, and although the Chinese characters are different, the Japanese word for rust is actually sabi. However, a plain rusted surface alone is not the desired finish, as the oranges are too strong. It is the very slow unforced change of color that is sought, and this is a process that cannot be hurried. One current artist in Japan uses metal sheets taken from the hulls of old ships and then cuts them to blend with the pieces of wooden furniture he makes. The sheets are all carefully cleaned with a wire brush so that all excess rust is removed and then protective oil is added. Among other metals that lend themselves to a wabi sabi feel are wrought iron and zinc. Wrought iron and cast iron are difficult to work, but some of the pieces that have been discarded have excellent potential for wabi sabi designs. They have already been through the aging process and have all the depth of color and texture required for incorporation into wabi sabi designs. Before the dawn of stainless steel, zinc was used for its nonrusting properties, but over a long period of time it naturally darkens as it oxidizes, leaving a very attractive patina. Conran furniture designers have developed a way of chemically accelerating this process and market tables whose patina has a very wabi sabi appearance. Metal on its own can be a little harsh and lacks intimacy, but it has a natural affinity with wood. Wood is far easier to work three dimensionally, and the two textures offer a great many combinations. Paper The number of handmade papers available in Japan is staggering, and the tradition stretches back through many generations. In the West there was, until more recently, the prevalence of the idea that paper was a medium for the recording of information or as a base for other types of artistic expression. In the East, however, there has been a long held reverence for the intrinsic beauty of handmade papers, made as they are from a huge variety of natural ingredients in a wide variety of styles. In 1928 there were no less than 28,532 Japanese families involved in the business of traditional paper making who sup- plied the huge demand for decorative and architectural purposes. Made without the use of bleaches or other chemicals, the papers capture the many textural and visual nuances of the natural ingredients and become a unique and rich tapestry. The delicacy of the paper belies its intrinsic strength, and in this delicacy and randomness of form one can find some very wabi sabi nuances. The properties of paper have long been exploited by Japanese designers, including Isamu Noguchi, whose groundbreaking lamp designs have become a well-known feature in houses throughout the world. Paper’s lightness and translucence, coupled with its ease of molding, gives artists the opportunity to use this economic resource in a multiplicity of ways. These properties of paper are used in the making of shoji, or screens, which, in the tearoom, allow just enough light to enter but ensure that it is diffused and unobtrusive. This lighting effect in the tearoom adds immeasurably to the whole ambience as everything within the room is bathed in a soft and soothing light. In addition to these shoji screens, good-quality paper has also been used for the scrolls that were hung in the tearoom and as a base for monochrome pictures. Textiles Although Japan is probably better known for the peerless silk work involved in the making of kimono, there still exists a cult of textile appreciation that emphasizes tactile and visual complexity. The wabi sabi aspect of fabrics is to be found in the coarse weaves and the use of traditional natural dyes such as persimmon, tea, saffron, onion, and indigo. These dyes are applied to such materials as hemp, silk, and cotton, and a wabi sabi–style result is best achieved by allowing a degree of randomness in the process so that there is an almost imperceptible stream of color change throughout the piece of fabric. The dyeing process also allows the hand of nature to weave its spell into the fabric so, as with all natural mediums, there is a degree of imperfection that can be seen and savored. There are several artists in Japan, among them Kumozawa Fujiko, who use textiles to produce wall hangings and room dividers. Kumozawa uses kaya, an antique mosquito net made from handwoven hemp, as a base and then adds a variety of natural dyes. These are then either framed or weighted at the bottom. A surprisingly good source of wabi sabi textiles comes from less economically developed countries and in particular the African continent. The use of natural dyes and the hand weaving of the materials ensures that the textiles have an added dimension of interest lacking in the consistency of most modern machine-made fabrics. The Zaire cloth shown in the illustration on the previous page, although a little more symbolic than pure Japanese work, is a good example of the materials available. Its randomness and rawness are in perfect balance with the faded organic colors. The African, who made it many decades ago, was probably closer to the spirit of wabi sabi than a lot of present-day tea practitioners, and the unaffected African spirit comes through every fiber of this cloth. Stone Although rarely seen in Japanese interiors, rocks and stones have played a fundamental role in the evolution of the Japanese aesthetic ideal. The shapes carved by nature over millions of years make rocks and stones some of the oldest physical items in our world, with some dating back way beyond our ability to conceive of the vastness of the passage of time. Melted deep within the earth, caught up in ice flows, pounded by rivers, eroded by rain, and ravished by extremes of heat and cold, rocks represent the most amazing resilience to the elements and yet even the hardest granite must eventually yield to the omni - potent forces at large. Maybe in part it is the clash of these two great forces and the work that has been done by nature over countless millennia that makes rocks so magnetic in their appeal. The extremes they have undergone are written both on their surfaces and through their cores and can be literally entrancing. Not ones to miss such an obvious truth, the Japanese incorporated rocks heavily into their garden designs and also developed an art form called suiseki (water stones), which essentially involved the mounting, on a carved wooden pedestal, of interesting rocks that had been found in the country- side. However, the use of flat stones or mined stones has been limited by the preference of wood as a building medium, and so the use of processed stones, other than those carved for garden ornaments, has been fairly limited. In Tokyo today one can see the expensive marbles and granites used for tower block facades, but there is still only limited use of stone for interior decoration, and considering its potential and the Japanese love of things shibui (literally “bitter” or “astringent”) this seems a little surprising. This may in part be explained by the limited usefulness of stone for interiors and the Japanese criteria of function before form. Lying between the two extremes of polished marbled and naturally occurring rocks there are stone surfaces that are almost audible in their wabi sabi appeal.