Exhibitions & fairs
Preparing a trade fair booth: what we bring
Every fair season the workshop spends a few weeks choosing samples, packing crates and building the stand. This is how we make sure a lacquer tray can tell its own story far from home.
A fair booth is a few square metres, and a visitor stops for a few seconds. In that time the piece has to say what it is, what it is made of, and why it is worth what it costs. Preparing for that begins long before opening day.
Choosing what to show
We usually bring three groups: designs in steady production for partners, a few new pieces from the year's collection, and some unfinished work — bare forms, primed forms, freshly sanded surfaces — so visitors can see the layers under the shine.
Packing
- Each piece wrapped in soft paper and then foam; never plastic directly against the lacquer
- Wooden crates for large pieces; double-walled cartons for small ones, labelled this way up and fragile
- A small kit travels with them: cloths, polishing powder and glue, to deal with a light scratch on the spot
On the stand
Light matters most. Raking light brings the surface alive — the depth of the layers becomes visible — where light from straight ahead shows only a flat shine. We always bring our own lamps rather than rely on the hall's.
And a craftsman always comes along. A salesperson can answer questions about technique, but when a craftsman picks up a sanding stone and shows it at the table, the story becomes more real than any brochure.
