The specialist guide to Asian antiques and exotic home decor from the far east.

Here’s a somewhat arcane post, yet one that’s incredibly useful for anyone who is either an interior designer, furniture designer or even just someone redecorating their home with one of the many 3d programs like Google sketchup. Which brings me to the topic of this post: where to find 3d models of Chinese furniture

So, here [...]

[Read more →]

This diagram from an article on the Woodworkers Institute website
shows how traditional Chinese joinery works

There is a great article on the Woodworkers Institute website which I stumbled upon quite randomly. I was actually researching some information on construction techniques for making dining room extension tables, when “lo and behold” I came across this two part [...]

[Read more →]

I stumbled upon this rather amusing post on designaddict.com which talks about Maarten Baas’s, recent Jully 2008 exhibition at Contrasts gallery in Shanghai.
While participating in Contrasts’ residency program, which brings Western artists to China to study local artistic and cultural practices, Baas became fascinated with traditional Chinese woodcarving; this exhibition is dominated by the results [...]

[Read more →]

If you are designer or retailer of lighting, accessories or other home decor items and have designs you are considering producing over in this part of the world, there is a worthwhile post on our other furniture industry blog called “Design Phase: The initial steps to manufacturing your home decor products in Asia.”

[Read more →]

I was in the warehouse the other day looking over some pieces when I was reminded how much reclaimed, recycled and/or renewable materials are definitely a growing trend. A quick Google turns up a range of articles from Reclaimed furniture: Give trees a chance to buzz on various designer blogs. Even [...]

[Read more →]

Photos of these two cabinets have been floating around on our file server for quite a while and I have been meaning to put them up here as another excellent example of differences in quality between Chinese antique workshops and restoration as well as in Chinese Country Antique Furniture in general. These are [...]

[Read more →]

Last week we went to an exhibition of new classic Chinese furniture. There were not only factories of furniture, but also those selling frightening robot-like CNC machines… It made me wonder if hand labor is even in threat of becoming abundant even here, even in this workmanship, even in art …

[Read more →]

Here is some great collection of articles I found on wood finish supply.com’s website about lacquers & wood finishing. Its quite technical and really intended for woodworkers and the like but if thats you, then this is a good resource.
Here is a sample of some of the articals:

The Atanomy of A Wood Finish
These 3 basic [...]

[Read more →]

One of the best things about controlling your own restorations is the ability to decide what the final result will look like. This end result can sometimes be as important as the original because the “customer’s customer” is going to be thinking about where and how the piece will fit into their home. Often a [...]

[Read more →]

 Chinese workers love to use the phrase ¨cha bu duo¨ (pronounced “Cha Boo Daul) which directly translates to ¨not very far off  (meaning approximately or roughly)¨ Unfortunately, in almost all case it usually works out to be not even close,  in otherwords,  ”cha tai duo”  (meaning way too far off).   Workers see no need for exact [...]

[Read more →]

CUSTOM BUILT
Custom items are “one of a kind” items built to spec in limited, often one off quantities. Custom items sometimes may be used as a template to make more – thus known as a SAMPLE or PROTOTYPE.

KNOWLEDGE: Requires extensive understanding of design, testing, materials, quality, construction techniques and factories
OPTIONS: Options are extremely flexible which [...]

[Read more →]

MANUFACTURED ITEMS
This is an area where people often have a quite a lot of difficulty distinguishing between the “style” of the product (in other words the visual appearance of the item) vs the actual “type” of product. To the average eye, an item may look like as if it is a hand-made, traditional Chinese piece [...]

[Read more →]

REPRODUCTION
New items which employ natural materials and handcrafted construction techniques often in use for
many generations. Generally occurs in a workshop environment with mostly hand tools and limited use
of modern machinery. Designs are based on traditional deigns modified slightly according to the times.
Items can be very similar but no two are exactly alike as a result [...]

[Read more →]

FAKE/REPLICATION
New, handcrafted pieces using natural materials (May use older or aged materials). Produced in a
workshop or “cottage industry” environment and based on actual antiques with extra effort put into
each piece for it to be made to look unique. Like antiques items can be very similar though no two will
be exactly alike. Pieces will possess little [...]

[Read more →]

CONVERTED
Converted items are both antique & reproduction at the same time. Because of this the materials
and/or construction should possess a very slight degree of wear/tear due to age/use. The main overall
design of a converted piece may remain the same or similr but heavy modifications are made including
structural, finishes etc

KNOWLEDGE: Basic an understanding of periods, regions, [...]

[Read more →]