Bohinc Studio has applied urushi, a traditional Japanese lacquer made of tree sap, to a series of boxes made from Katsura tree wood and cotton.
Conceived by Studio founder Lara Bohinc during a two-week residency in Wajima, Japan, the two boxes are made from Katsura tree wood and covered with cotton fabric. Multiple layers of urushi lacquer are then applied to the boxes to make them durable and give a highly polished finish.
To give her urushi boxes a contemporary update, Bohinc used geometric shapes and swapped out the traditional red and black lacquer colours for pastel shades, which she describes as "fresh, lively, and more feminine".

The pastel lacquers were developed especially by master craftsman Nakakado, with whom the British designer worked closely on this project. "Last year I carried out an artist residency in Wajima, Japan with urushi master Nakakado," Bohinc told Dezeen. "The program is supported by the Japanese government to promote crafts and has a different theme each year."
Wajima is known as the manufacturing heart of the centuries-old urushi technique and traditional urushi boxes are an important part of the Japanese lacquer industry.

"My theme was 'from small to big' and I wanted to reflect on the vanity, which is a huge tradition in Japanese lacquerware; so I thought of jewels and decorative pieces for the body as the smallest objects, and boxes in which to store the pieces as the larger objects," said Bohinc.
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