Lacquer is not paint. It is built - layer by layer, sanded back, built again - a process that can run for months before a piece is finished. Hanoia was founded in 1997 by a group of Vietnamese artisans and foreign designers, who went on to produce lacquerware for the world's great luxury houses, anonymously, before stepping forward under their own name. In 2013 they opened a second workshop in a centuries-old lacquer village near Hanoi. That apprenticeship shows. The work is immaculate.
Their artisans live and work in Vietnam's traditional lacquer villages, carrying techniques passed down through generations and refining them with each piece. Eggshell inlay. Gold leaf gilding. Hand engraving. Nothing is rushed because nothing can be. The object tells you so.
