One line, two scripts
In Chinese, 一 is the simplest stroke of all, and it is where writing begins. The Arabic numeral 1 is drawn as a single line too. Nobody set out to copy anything; Chinese calligraphy and a Western number simply arrive at the same minimal shape.
Laozi wrote: “One begets two, two begets three, and three begets the ten thousand things.” Here the “one” is both the first number in a sequence and the point from which everything else unfolds. The work takes that single stroke as its form.
The Chinese name, 「一·横」, means “one · horizontal stroke”. The brand name 鳞一 (Linyi) also contains 一: it draws on two idioms, one about scales lying neatly in rows and one about a single thread running through everything. This piece turns that “one” into an object. In China, urushi has long been valued for how many centuries it can last; covering this small object in lacquer gives it a surface meant to stay.
“One” is a stroke, a number, a beginning, everything.
— Linyi
The object
How it was made
The core is vegetable-tanned leather, moulded into the required form. Once the form is fixed, it is covered with linen and then filled with three grades of tile-powder ground (wahui 瓦灰) — coarse, medium and fine. Each layer is left to dry completely and sanded before the next, so the surface becomes steadily flatter and finer.
Then comes the lacquer: red and black are applied in alternation, layer over layer, each layer polished with fine abrasive paper while the colour is adjusted. The finish comes from more than fifteen rounds of hand-polishing (tuiguang 推光) and wiping with raw lacquer (kaiqing 揩清), which give it a warm, deep sheen. See Craft for more on these techniques.
Inside, stainless-steel fittings let the lid open and close smoothly and seal well. The whole piece weighs only 152 g and fits in a pocket — an attempt to move lacquer from the traditional desk into everyday carry.
Making video
The Chinese page includes a video of the whole process, from moulding the leather and applying the ground to alternate lacquering and polishing. More making videos are on He Wei’s YouTube channel.
Details
| Title | The Single Stroke (「一·横」 / ONE) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Dimensions | 3 × 18 × 4 cm |
| Weight | 152 g |
| Materials | Urushi (Chinese lacquer), leather, stainless steel, linen |
| Category | Lacquered leather |
From the workshop
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