OLD STYLE - NEW IDEAS
Processing the bamboo involves first stripping it – he uses four-to-five- yearold moso bamboo – of its pith, which leaves about half a centimeter of usable wood. The bamboo is then cut into strips, which are glued together under high pressure into planks or panels. Back in Liu’s factory, these planks are cut into shape, sanded, and treated with several coats of lacquer before undergoing carbonization – a steaming process which effectively caramelizes the sugars in the bamboo, giving it a deeper, richer color.
1
Liu brings
or pressure switch. Due to the small scale of Liu’s operation, only about 300 of each one is ever made.
a selection of bamboo boxes over to the table. Their smooth, seamless look is striking. It’s almost as if each has been carved from one solid block of wood. Liu explains that this is because no nails or screws are used in the making of his products. Instead, he makes almost exclusive use of the mortise and tenon joint – an ancient joining technique in which a protruding section on one piece of wood is inserted into a cavity in another.
Liu has achieved a masterly balance of practicality, craftsmanship, and novelty in his creations, which is perhaps what makes his work so suitable for the 21st century. He shows us a range of covers for iPhones and USB sticks, and then a series of eggshaped salt and pepper shakers. Each is beautifully grained, and has a clean, lacquered finish with Liu’s name engraved on the back along with the date of completion. They all look expensive, well crafted, unique – exclusive items that do not look at all out of place in the home or hands of a fashionable urbanite. And that, it seems, is Liu’s secret. He has made bamboo fashionable.
“Try to open it,” he says, pointing to the box I’m examining. I pull at the lid, but it doesn’t budge. I run my fingers over the box trying to find a hinge or a latch of some kind, but there are none. It seems to be impenetrable. I hand it to Liu, confused. He takes it in his hand, tilts it forwards 45 degrees, and slides off the lid. We now see that set in the rim is an irregular wheel. When the box is f lat, the hump of the wheel blocks the lid from opening. But tilted at a 45-degree angle, the wheel tilts to reveal a f lat edge, allowing the lid to slip over the top. Of course, the boxes on the table are no ordinary containers. They are examples of Lin’s signature product: puzzle boxes. Liu has designed about 54 of these to date, and plans to finish with a set numbering 100 in the next few years. Each box is unique, opening only on the discovery of a secret panel
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Travel in Taiwan
English and Chinese Liu Wen-huang 劉文煌 Zhushan 竹山
2 1. Producing bamb oo b oxes 2. Bamb oo stand for reading Buddhist scripts
Bamboola Taiwan ( 大禾竹藝工坊 ) Add: 7, Lane 362, Yanxiang Borough, Yanxiang Rd., Zhushan Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣竹山鎮延祥里延祥路 362 巷 7 號 ) Tel: (049) 263-5206 Website: www.bamboola.com.tw
Bamboola has branches in several locations around Taiwan, including Taipei, Yilan, Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Tainan. See the website for details on products and store locations.