you can tell that the guy making the bonsai scissors really loves his work and his art. the fact that he’s also letting his sons choose whether or not they want to pursue in his craft was heartwarming but also bittersweet.. 22 generations thats craxy
@@JH-fk8owI wish I could agree but there are unfortunately still parents in the world who decides every part their kids life, even in the most modern countries
To me craftmanship means I pay once for an item to last me a lifetime versus buying multiple cheaper versions every few years. It really means paying upfront. It also means respecting the item and the value that was imbued into it.
This is very true... I'm a roof blacksmith, I make metal roofs by hand, and the tools have a major role. It's a very niche business, so everything is not even available as new - but those basic ones that are, are usually crap quality and wear out quickly. Some older hand-made tools are seriously hard to find, and usually need to repair and modify them before use - but the difference is huge, they last a lifetime if maintained properly, and the effect on own work quality is totally worth it. The roofs I make last atleast some 50-70 years, some even longer, while the cost is triple compared to a cheap mass-produced one - but thankfully some do realize it's a price that only need to pay once, so the market still exists.
The development of modern pigments and large-scale paint manufacturing helped make the art and craft of oil painting affordable to almost anyone. It's always interesting to cite the luxurious, lapis-derived Ultramarine, the exotic and macabre Mummy Brown, and the sad (and thankfully obsolete) Indian Yellow, but the current palette is largely made up of highly affordable, synthetic organic pigments developed after the 19th c. These often out-perform historical colors in terms of permanence, tint strength (the potency of a color in mixtures) and covering power. Synthetic pigments also make it possible for a huge variety of artist's colors to be safe enough for anyone to use with no special concern for safety, unlike some historical colors which would not be considered safe today by most standards. We think the Old Masters would marvel at the low cost, high quality and broad availability of paint available to artists today!
@@shereenhussain3610 In 2018 examination of research by Carl Gräbe did authenticate the origin of historical pigment samples so, while for a very long time the only source for this claim was Sir Joseph Hooker' s correspondence with T N Mukharji, it does appear that Indian Yellow was, in fact, produced as believed, from the urine of cows.
as much as I love the craftsmanship in the artisan calligraphy brushes, having practiced calligraphy for a decade with a master calligrapher whose family are all masters, they all say the same thing... the quality of the brush is far less important than the hand that uses it. if you are disciplined enough, you can write beautifully with the frayed part of a snapped chopstick
After reading your comment, I would actually like to see master calligraphers try their hand at creating things, with the worst quality ink avalible and frayed snapped chopsticks. I know it's unlikely and would also be slightly rude to ask of someone but I'm just really curious
@@vectorthehop3945 I might just practice calligraphy for 10 years and become a master, while having a UA-cam channel, then do what you just said. By then i’d probably have forgotten what I did it for though
A family of blacksmiths spanning 22 generations?!?!? Holly hell! That is so amazing, I hope he's able to preserve his family's business. His tools are definitely works of art themselves, and they create art as well. What a rich cultural background. I wish I had more culture in my upbringing. I don't even know what my Grandfather's names were.
My ancestors used to make calligraphy ink, and I can still remember the wooden molds. But these molds were all thrown away 35 years ago. My family migrated from Southern Anhui, China, where the most famous calligraphy ink originated, and was produced.
I am a traditional Chinese lacquer artist.Studied 26 years in China.The artist explanation is perfect.Japan makes the most pristine lacquer in the world.I believe Tang Ming Xi has visited this artist. The one problem is the fact natural lacquer is related to poison ivy and artists today are not Will to sacrifice the time to make apiece.Thank you for this video.
I felt sad for the lack of health and safety protection for the workers, even if they are self employed. Look at al the soot on the faces and no doubt the carbon in the lungs.
Ay bro these guys are grown up educated men. They should have the right to do things in the old traditional way even though there might be health consequences as long as they see fit. Ya know Japan isnt a poor struggling country where you have to take whatever work you can get, they chose this line of work because they want to be connected to their culture.
@@patrickshea5955 Come on! There are rich people and poor people everywhere. you cannot just say that Japan is a rich country and wave off these concerns. Inhaling that much soot is not good for anyone.
I am impressed and amazed anytime an artisan shares their process to bring understanding to their work. I appreciate the craftsmanship that takes time and pride in quality. I can only imagine the extinction of some processes that we lost over time.
knowledge need no tbe lost but many artisans will rather choke on their pride than to hand over the secrets of the trade.. this is were guilds used to step in, but alas, they fell to the hands of the abusers, much like the unions did.
People making paint out of pollution made me cry, I literally cried, I am so touched that some people out there still do what they're passionate about and also love to save their planet. That's such a wonderful noble cause. As an artist myself, I think that is one of the ways we can show our love to others, to humanity, that we care about the future. Thanks for that.
It's interesting but the small amount of material harvested doesn't make any substantial difference in the pollution. It's more of a fetish than a noble cause.
Someone once said that the most important factor in the value of an artwork is its noticeability; it doesn't matter the reason for which it is noticed. That person was the creator of the font Comic Sans, and that's why he considers it a success (despite many people absolutely despising it).
I love seeing century-old, or even millenia-old, crafts kept alive, and seeing people appreciate their craft and the items they create. The items made carry so much history behind them; all the knowledge and creativity, the sourcing of the raw materials, the trail and error, and the people behind them. Hundreds or thousands of years of mankind's invention!
I've always wanted to explore the cultures around the world that are less recognized than what are usually commercialized. Lacquer painting really is an intricate form of art and I got to know about the Tyrian purple dye only now. Thank you for the video!
Man, Ghassan could spread this technique as an influencer and also give workshops and turn his workshop into a museum- this way more people will get to know about him and the lost ancient tradition and support his amazing art!!
Something that is so crazy and hard to comprehend is just how much time and how many trials and errors went into perfecting every single thing on this planet basically
Billions of people live more comfortably with better health and technology etc. because a few percent of the total number of human beings devoting themselves to lives of painstaking research, artistry, trial-and-error - even something we consider as "simple" as the incandescent light-bulb took years of research to perfect. This is also why broad access to higher quality education is so important - we need to encourage that intellect, curiosity, creativity in the select few that are capable of creating world-changing technologies. We really should be venerating these researchers, artists etc. over social-media figures, athletes etc.
1:13:45 I can well understand why many people feel reluctant to contemporary art. The abstract portraits in particular lack recognizable craftsmanship. Accordingly, the majority of the value does not arise from the "artwork" and its creation, but from speculation in the art market, because it is not at all about "art", but about investments coupled with the desire for increase in value over time.That actually has nothing to do with what most people understand as art and its inherent search for beauty, and accordingly the general rejection by most people is understandable.
Fun fact, abstract art only has value because in the late 50s, an artist begged his famous art critic friend to give him a good review. So the art critic, who actually hated his friends art, wrote a small review in a tiny publication that he thought no one would see. Well people did see it and abstract art exploded into popularity. So basically everyone is getting ripped off because one guy wanted to be nice to his untalented friend.
@@katarinatibai8396 It really did feel like the end segment came out of nowhere. Like here's a man who scoured 1st century documents to figure out the lost art of making tyrian pigment, here's a guy whose family is made of blacksmiths and they make the most amazing (and honestly beautiful) scissors in the world, here are the women who create extraordinarily high quality paintbrushes with decades of experience behind them, this man and his son use ultra rare goat hair to create exquisite calligraphy brushes, and... here's a guy who finger painted dots onto a canvas. like honestly it truly is offensive to put that in a video showcasing these master craftsmen
eactly, that was what I was thinking, you can achieve that colir purpe just by mixing blues and pinks.. hs endavours are admirable but unnecessary and he is killig the snails for nothing. Theory is aso useful, it need no tbe accompanied by wholesale slaughter just to prove a point.
I live in the Piedmont region of the USA……the “foot of the mountain “. Our soils contain high concentrations of iron oxides, eroded and oxidized ancient mountains, of which the Appalachians are the remnants. I harvested everything I could get my hands on to make various colors of paint……the resulting paintings made a show I called, “Dirty Pictures”. Fun! Quite crude compared to the Gamblin suppliers’ pigments. I’m going to order some of those right away!
I imagine it has something to do with the rigorous caste system of years past, and also the isolationism. Globalization is the mortal enemy of traditionalism, and Japan's youth today reflects that, with increasingly fewer people still continuing these traditional crafts. The caste system was divided between labourers of different skills. So over hundreds of years, you would find that the same families are still doing the exact same thing, since there was basically no way for peasants to move up in the caste system. The highest of the merchants were probably the only people with any upwards mobility in the ranks. So there would be families that do the same thing for generations, teaching their increasingly specialized and expert skills to their children. With the end of Japan's isolationism in the 1800's, and with the start of modern globalization, there was lessening focus on the traditional crafts, and more focus put towards modern or even just new traditional crafts from other countries. They became isolated again in the late 1800's-early 1900's, but then after WW2, their doors were basically smashed open to welcome the outside world completely. That's when traditional Japanese crafts were basically thrown out to welcome the easier and newer industries.
As an artist, anytime I see some effectively ancient craft shop my heart melts over the dedication of the workers to providing such amazing materials, because while it sounds pretentious high quality materials really do make a difference.
@@Robalogot The quality of the art supplies absolutely affects the quality of the art. It’s a clue to the artist’s self-respect, respect for the product, and respect for the purchaser. Rothko comes to mind.
It was really cool to see the actual women who have made a handful of my brushes. 😀 I appreciate that. The section on oil paint was a bit BS'itty, considering the mentioned pigments. Tyrian purple has never been used in oil paint. It's way too substandard and fugitive. Tyrian Purple is, as was said previously, a collector's item. It has no practical use, as it's inferior to all other purple colorants in every way. 'Purple Lake' was historically a purple variant made from Cochineal insects, not snails. Today it's usually a Quinacridone. They also never ran out of Mummies. (there were plenty of them, in Egypt they even used mummies as fuel for the steam engines of a railway). They ran out of social acceptance, as society emerged from the gritty medieval ages (people were quite upset, at least one artist held funeral services for Mummy paint). And Mummy was also fugitive and thus unsuitable for permanent work. Cobalt Blue is not expensive because of the process temperature. Synthetic Ultramarine is in the furnace for 18-20 hours and is fairly cheap. Cobalt Blue is expensive because Cobalt is expensive and toxic, and the pigment's properties (extreme permanence) are little sought after outside the art material market. Thus it's not mass produced, which makes it even more expensive. Production volume is a major reason for cost of pigments. Even pigments which were difficult to develop and are extremely difficult to synthetize, eventually come down in price, if there is a sizeable market asking for them, thus driving mass production processes. The car, ceramic tiles and sign industries' demands for durable colors, is what has driven the emergence of fairly affordable modern fast pigments. Iron Oxide/Hydroxide pigments are the most important colored pigments in the world. They are also the most important Art pigments. They are in many ways the very best pigments there are. Synthetic Iron Oxide pigments can be a bit disappointing for artist use, but on the other hand we are running out of good natural deposits. Mining sludge from old mines, for pigment, seem like a brilliant idea. I was really happy to see this. The last section, on modern art, blah. 🤨
I gotta tell this to someone who gets it, I ruined my favorite Kolinsky. I forgot it in a bag, that I left out at our balcony (I spilled booze on it and it stank horrible, promptly forgot I meant to wash it), thought for months that Ive lost it some weird way, found my outdoors painting back again, opened it and.. moths had eaten every single hair! Ill admit, I cried. I was so mad with myself, just looked at the empty ferrule and bawled. And I ruined 3 cheaper, but loved sable brushes by forgetting them in water for three days, when our cat had medical emergency. That only stung a bit, I was mostly happy the cat was ok, but I wasnt that excited about my newly made sable hair soup.. When I told my husband, he just shrugged and told to buy new ones, but these were my babies. Only a fellow artist understands.
Well you seem like you know what you're talking about so I'll agree with you. I don't know anything about art, but like knowing how things are made. I also don't like bs
I didn't understand the point about 'only women can make the brushes'. The narrator said because of 'dexterity', but that's a non-sequitur. If women have better dexterity then all the best surgeons would be women. I think what he meant to say is that men aren't interested in a brush-making career.
@@janemiettinen5176 You sound like a very irresponsible type -- I'm not an artist, but I do use sable brushes in my work, and even a $5 sable brush is always immediately cleaned and pointed, after every use. If you switch to bulk brushes 100/pack or 200/pack, you'll have much less stress about it. Don't fight against your personality... go with the flow. Use the cheapies and throw them away after use. No more crying.
That acid mine water is what the Mayan's used to soften granite rock so their walls would fit together so exactly. There's an interesting video by Ancient Architects about it.
Anyone saying Tax fraud doesn't understand the majority of art... As a artist and a wife with a bachelor of fine arts. almost 90% of all art is not tax write offs and most artists struggle and their mediums are very expensive. support artists!
Look me I don't care what you have to say no one has to spend 30 grand on the f****** brush. Sorry but while I don't think that people should buy cheap rubbish there is no way that anyone with any brains is going to buy anything like this you can do just as good with synthetic stuff. This is just fraud all the way and they are laughing at you all the way to the bank bank.
'Tax write offs' don't have anything to do with it. It's MONEY LAUNDERING. For example, say a foreign country like China wants to pay Joe Biden to do something. So they 'buy' a 'painting' from his son, Hunter, for $500,000. Obviously he's not an artist. It's a doodle he did while he wash high, and not worth any money at all, let alone $500,000. So, Hunter passes the money to Joe, in exchange for a small piece of the action (he's a bag man). The crime is Joe Biden selling his elected office to a foreign country, not 'tax fraud'. But of course, he can't report that duffel bag full of cash on his taxes, because it will require him to explain where it came from. So, tax fraud is just a side effect of influence peddling.
Most great artists die broke and unappreciated. It's the artists like Thomas Kinkade who achieve fame and fortune within their lifetimes. I'm sorry; I realize it's not fair.
That explains why artists are so attentive and choosy when they are painting. And why professional art materials can be so costly. Very interesting video, thank you for sharing!😊
@41:15 so we're just going to ignore the fact that the only thing he had to say about the practice of using crushed up human remains as pigment was that it was perfect for some flesh tones?
Ghassan, the purple dye artist, hats off to you bro. So glad they featured your rediscovered ancient skilled craft. Thank you for the insight. You deserve much wealth for your tentative ambition. Well done, Ghassan. Very well done indeed! 👏🙌👌✌️💪💐🌹🙇♀️❤️
As an artist, what bothers me about pieces that look like they were just slopped together is that there are people out there who put months into their work, use multiple skills to make massive pieces of mixed media art and get absolutely zero for them, despite only charging a miniscule portion of the millions the other pieces go for, and have people just telling them their work isn't worth that much. I've personally sold a few pieces maxing out around $50 and I'm genuinely worried about posting a piece I am going to charge $500 for for exactly that reason, despite my over 25 years of experience, multiple different types of classes and courses as well as continued practice with the help of teachers and university taught artists on UA-cam, the use of multiple types of media and it being genuinely aesthetically pleasing on an objective level. I'm not saying I'm amazing at art but it is pretty and there are years of knowledge and experience behind it and still I feel like I would be cheating people out of money even thought in the art world $500 is really not all that much.
You need to target filthy rich people. Your customer base isn't bougie enough. Your customers like pretty things, bazillionaires don't. The uglier the better.
Hey man, I totally get you. However as a fellow artist who also keeps learning I have to tell you: Your art is never about technique or how personally you see it. It's about the vallue you produce for others. So tell your story and vallue yourself, sell it for 1000 instead of 500, MAKE others vallue your art. It's about creating vallue through storytelling. In short: MARKETING!
@@Kirrie_Sushicat I totally get you. I ended up paying it as an auction. It starts at $500 and as soon as the first person interested says they want it for $500 the war begins. People then have a week to make their bid and the highest bid wins. *I haven't received a single one* So I really can't expect to ever get $500 for it, let alone $1k. That said, I only showed it to my Instagram followers, and well, a heck of a lot of people scrolling specific related hashtags but that's had the potential of an upwards of tens of thousands of people seeing my art and it's price and not a single bid, but that's not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. If you have any advice about where to post, that would be a massive help. I do plan to post on Reddit though. I'm just not quite yet sure where. I plan to look up and check out multiple at selling related subs.
@@paranoiarpincess well. Know your audience. What people are those? Are they poor students/very normal people? If yes, they would never pay more than 100 bucks for art. If that's the case, sell art prints for 5-25$ or downloadable digital content. Rich people don't care about the quality of art. If you can make yourself be memorable to them, they will gladly use your art to laundry money.
@@Kirrie_Sushicat it's insanely depressing how right you are about that. The rich people thing that is. I fully plan to make prints and I know a few people who would buy those. Thing is, my art is 3D so the originals are SO much better, and not just because they're original.
Respect to these artisans for the beautiful traditional craftsmanships, leaving a cultural legacy behind. I sincerely hope the passion will be nurtured and passed onto the next generations.
Art has always been expensive. That's why historically artists have noble patrons to pat for it. The higher quality equipment one require, the more expensive it is.
Sumi-e ink is one of those heritage crafts that, if the market truly demanded it, could readily be scaled through the use of automation. However, the artists and calligraphers who use the ink value the craftsmanship behind the inks that they use as much as the ink itself. So even if you could use industrial processes to produce an identical product, that isn't really what they want for their pieces. Maybe they would use those ink sticks to practice with, but for the calligraphy or paintings that they intent to pass on or sell, they would want something with more heritage and tradition behind it. Having used a few different grades of brushes while painting, I can 100% understand the demand for high quality brushes. Particularly if you work in washes and tints. Working with thicker media like undiluted oil paints and acrylics, you can readily make due with lower quality synthetic brushes that have the right spring force and shape, but if you use thin paints like watercolor and gouache, or thinned out washes of acrylic or oil paint, then the way a higher quality brush loads and dispenses this thinner paint is priceless to you.
I have some kolinsky sable brushes. They were indeed expensive, but my teachers explained they were essential to get the best watercolouring possible :)
36:15 Dude has the most rocking beard I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, the rest of us shampoo, oil, trim, shape and pamper our freakin face hair and call it ‘effort’… but this dude has managed to grow solid 12 hairs on his chin to a respectable length, and maintain them just as they are without feeling the need to give up and just say - ‘Ahh screw it I can’t grow facial hair’ and then cut those lil’ whiskers off… and I call that sheer dedication… at least more than any of us will ever know or understand in a single lifetime 🙇🏻♂️ 👏 👏 👏
"And as I licked the flavor off the inside of the popcorn bag, I became one with the salt. My spirit melted like the butter" - Japanese man describing how and why he dedicated 70 years of his life to being the best popcorn bag licker.
Absolutely stunning mastery of their arts. The price of the end result is the cost of the creators life who perfected the excellence. Let us celebrate the masters 🙌👌
I’ve used inexpensive (low end) sumi and it is a treat to use and see the results. So black and smooth. I can only imagine how delightful high end sumi feels and looks.
When it comes to quality, as you go up in quality, price increases intensely for small changes. There is a uniqueness too when something is made via traditional, human spirited technique , not just admirable for the difficulty of it, but because to a highly knowledgeable and experienced artist or collector can both see and appreciate these nuances that a typical person would overlook, or perhaps see but not understand what makes an ink, or an art peice have a powerful spirit and beauty to them. I dont think this belittles modern inks or paints or artistic products that have created a fast and cheap "good enough" replacement , these are equally amazing discoveries , and sadly as the world constantly evolves, we lose some of these ancient industries , just as certain species go extinct, so too do our materials needed to recreate a moment in art history. I hope all these master craftsmen can continue their work as long as they are able. Its a lotus among so much murk and darkness that our world struggles through
Fantastic, I love when people work so hard to create something brilliant out of something devastating. Thank you, wishing you all the best of luck in your mission.😊
With all other examples you can see people loving their craft with passion... with modern art you can see a bunch of pretenders trying to defend the reason for their scam; no soul, no finesse, no function, only pretenses.
@@RyunoOhi At least AI art is sometimes aesthetically pleasing. I can't say I've enjoyed looking at any contemporary art. I do laugh and puke when someone calls themselves and "AI artist" though.
Interesting contrast of the craftsman clips with the abstract painting clip. While abstraction art is interesting it’s arguably easiest to con people with an abstract painting vs. the years of dedication needed to be a blacksmith, inkmaker, etc. I still really enjoy thought provoking abstract art…I just don’t know if it’s worth millions.
it is so soothing to see its skilled people. I'm not a big fan of today's industries and waste! this is so durable in the long run! we need to go back in time and take care of what we have and live more sustainably! ❤️
I really gotta appreciate how mass production made it unnecessary to put so much effort into so many everyday things. Imagine having to train a dude for 10 years to step on some ink well.
I am in awe watching this… They do such an amazing job and it’s so tedious…. Crazy how talented they are. I could never afford anything they make but, WOW…
Beautiful, to think these pratices have been passed down for generations... Its family secrets with super hard work and attention to detail. I love my sumi sticks and especially sumi gold. It is expensive for quality sticks but well worth it.
Those poor guys in the soot room covered in black oil soot with no mask and no shoes should receive both and I’m sure a raise too. That’s what we call externalized cost
You find the remains of a snail that was crushed a few days ago. Maybe it was dropped by a sea gull onto some rocks. It fermented and then dried a bit. There's some beautiful purple leaking out. You've never seen a good purple dye until now so you find it amazing. You gather up some more of these snails and start figuring out how to best refine the pigment so you can make a one-of-a-kind present for that cute girl in the next village.
you can tell that the guy making the bonsai scissors really loves his work and his art. the fact that he’s also letting his sons choose whether or not they want to pursue in his craft was heartwarming but also bittersweet.. 22 generations thats craxy
In all reality, they'll probably be more willing to help because they have that choice
''the fact that he’s also letting his sons choose'' lol its 2020's not 1950's
@@JH-fk8owI wish I could agree but there are unfortunately still parents in the world who decides every part their kids life, even in the most modern countries
I'd gladly go live with that man not to let that art of making scissors die
@@notfiveobecause he makes scissors, not ink???
bro Ghassan is such an absolute chad. To rediscover a process from ancient historic texts is nothing short of remarkable. We need more of this dude.
When did being a chad go from a negative to a positive 😮
@@machetenikkiit always has been positive. Only Iefties don’t think so because they’re weak men
@@machetenikkiLike ages ago, it's been a positive thing for years now
@@machetenikki don't worry about it.
@@machetenikkiwas never a negative
To me craftmanship means I pay once for an item to last me a lifetime versus buying multiple cheaper versions every few years.
It really means paying upfront. It also means respecting the item and the value that was imbued into it.
This is very true... I'm a roof blacksmith, I make metal roofs by hand, and the tools have a major role. It's a very niche business, so everything is not even available as new - but those basic ones that are, are usually crap quality and wear out quickly. Some older hand-made tools are seriously hard to find, and usually need to repair and modify them before use - but the difference is huge, they last a lifetime if maintained properly, and the effect on own work quality is totally worth it. The roofs I make last atleast some 50-70 years, some even longer, while the cost is triple compared to a cheap mass-produced one - but thankfully some do realize it's a price that only need to pay once, so the market still exists.
Well your wrong.
@@user-pc8tb7hg1lHandlesRDumb you're*
Agreed. Also, your buying an item that has history behind it; all the thought and creativity, raw material, and people throughout the years!
Absolutely incredible!
The development of modern pigments and large-scale paint manufacturing helped make the art and craft of oil painting affordable to almost anyone. It's always interesting to cite the luxurious, lapis-derived Ultramarine, the exotic and macabre Mummy Brown, and the sad (and thankfully obsolete) Indian Yellow, but the current palette is largely made up of highly affordable, synthetic organic pigments developed after the 19th c. These often out-perform historical colors in terms of permanence, tint strength (the potency of a color in mixtures) and covering power. Synthetic pigments also make it possible for a huge variety of artist's colors to be safe enough for anyone to use with no special concern for safety, unlike some historical colors which would not be considered safe today by most standards. We think the Old Masters would marvel at the low cost, high quality and broad availability of paint available to artists today!
Hi, Blick!
Love your store!
oh wow!!! Dick Blick even commented!? ❤❤
@@kamaniaray Thanks for noticing!
indian yellow is a victorian fallacy
@@shereenhussain3610 In 2018 examination of research by Carl Gräbe did authenticate the origin of historical pigment samples so, while for a very long time the only source for this claim was Sir Joseph Hooker' s correspondence with T N Mukharji, it does appear that Indian Yellow was, in fact, produced as believed, from the urine of cows.
as much as I love the craftsmanship in the artisan calligraphy brushes, having practiced calligraphy for a decade with a master calligrapher whose family are all masters, they all say the same thing... the quality of the brush is far less important than the hand that uses it. if you are disciplined enough, you can write beautifully with the frayed part of a snapped chopstick
After reading your comment, I would actually like to see master calligraphers try their hand at creating things, with the worst quality ink avalible and frayed snapped chopsticks. I know it's unlikely and would also be slightly rude to ask of someone but I'm just really curious
@@vectorthehop3945 I might just practice calligraphy for 10 years and become a master, while having a UA-cam channel, then do what you just said.
By then i’d probably have forgotten what I did it for though
@@Bxll_Bxll alr cya in 10 years then
Doubt
this is unironically the most beautiful comment ive read
For those of you who don't know, Daizo Kaneko has a line of calligraphy pens and brushes! He's like the Japanese bob ross tbh
Do you have a site to buy those/
But he’s not very well known or very famous outside of Japan :(
If that man was Indian or from a third world country you wouldn't hold him in such high regards.
Link?
@@Dreampedia???
Amazing. The amount of work and time to make sumi ink is inspiring on its own. The ink is art.
@michael woehl - Yes, I had no idea!
No, it’s stupid
Making soot seems like an incredibly unhealthy job though. Soot causes cancer and lung disease. Do they get Chimney sweeps' carcinoma?
A family of blacksmiths spanning 22 generations?!?!? Holly hell! That is so amazing, I hope he's able to preserve his family's business. His tools are definitely works of art themselves, and they create art as well. What a rich cultural background. I wish I had more culture in my upbringing. I don't even know what my Grandfather's names were.
I was NOT expecting the tyrian purple guy to sound like that omg
Haha, me neither! Total shock
Fr!!
I came looking for this comment. 😂
the most american voice i ever heard in my life
@@laifyalifnot quite, there’s a small Arabic accent to it. He took great care to learn English with a nearly clean accent.
My ancestors used to make calligraphy ink, and I can still remember the wooden molds. But these molds were all thrown away 35 years ago. My family migrated from Southern Anhui, China, where the most famous calligraphy ink originated, and was produced.
So sad to hear.
nice ey, those boomers are the same everywhere... :(
I am a traditional Chinese lacquer artist.Studied 26 years in China.The artist explanation is perfect.Japan makes the most pristine lacquer in the world.I believe Tang Ming Xi has visited this artist. The one problem is the fact natural lacquer is related to poison ivy and artists today are not Will to sacrifice the time to make apiece.Thank you for this video.
The lifelong dedication to their craft is so amazing and admirable. This is a wonderful documentary.
Yes indeed. Wonderful film. Truly amazing work and craft , talent into the artful pleasures.
I felt sad for the lack of health and safety protection for the workers, even if they are self employed. Look at al the soot on the faces and no doubt the carbon in the lungs.
This! All I could think is lung cancer
Ay bro these guys are grown up educated men. They should have the right to do things in the old traditional way even though there might be health consequences as long as they see fit. Ya know Japan isnt a poor struggling country where you have to take whatever work you can get, they chose this line of work because they want to be connected to their culture.
@@patrickshea5955 was hoping I'd find this comment.
@@patrickshea5955 poverty exists in every country
@@patrickshea5955 Come on! There are rich people and poor people everywhere. you cannot just say that Japan is a rich country and wave off these concerns. Inhaling that much soot is not good for anyone.
I am impressed and amazed anytime an artisan shares their process to bring understanding to their work. I appreciate the craftsmanship that takes time and pride in quality. I can only imagine the extinction of some processes that we lost over time.
knowledge need no tbe lost but many artisans will rather choke on their pride than to hand over the secrets of the trade.. this is were guilds used to step in, but alas, they fell to the hands of the abusers, much like the unions did.
People making paint out of pollution made me cry, I literally cried, I am so touched that some people out there still do what they're passionate about and also love to save their planet. That's such a wonderful noble cause. As an artist myself, I think that is one of the ways we can show our love to others, to humanity, that we care about the future. Thanks for that.
I’d love to see the line of earth reclaimed paints in acrylic as well as oil. I would definitely support them.
It's interesting but the small amount of material harvested doesn't make any substantial difference in the pollution. It's more of a fetish than a noble cause.
Agricultural fertiliser?
Fool
Environmentalism is a religion.
Someone once said that the most important factor in the value of an artwork is its noticeability; it doesn't matter the reason for which it is noticed. That person was the creator of the font Comic Sans, and that's why he considers it a success (despite many people absolutely despising it).
Despising Comic Sans is a meme. Hardly anyone actually cares either way.
All press is good press. But also Comic Sans is great for people with Dyslexia.
I love seeing century-old, or even millenia-old, crafts kept alive, and seeing people appreciate their craft and the items they create. The items made carry so much history behind them; all the knowledge and creativity, the sourcing of the raw materials, the trail and error, and the people behind them. Hundreds or thousands of years of mankind's invention!
In Mexico they have a similar snail that gives purple dye, but they milk the gland without killing the snail.
@@YTNoodle5 I don't know how they do it
very, very carefully@@YTNoodle5
If your thinking of the Murex snails, they have sadly gone extinct almost everywhere including mexico
@@coredefect6134 that's sad to hear
@@coredefect6134damn. That’s gotta suck for people whose livelihood depended on them.
I've always wanted to explore the cultures around the world that are less recognized than what are usually commercialized. Lacquer painting really is an intricate form of art and I got to know about the Tyrian purple dye only now. Thank you for the video!
I guess in conclusion:
• Materials
• Labor
• Rarity
• Length of time in making it
• Who is or are making it
• History
• Demand
• Quality
• Brand
and last, tax evasion (for modern art)
@@DarkModulator Forgot about that most important part use by the rich in 20th century 🤣 My bad
You forgot "campaign donations that exceeds the legal allowed limit so the donor buys a mediocre art piece to make a unofficial donation"
You forgot: HYPE and THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT.
😱WOW... I DEFINITELY was NOT expecting that voice @ 23:13 but TBH... it was a nice lil' unexpected surprise!! LOL🤪
Same with 10:20
Same 😅😂
Man, Ghassan could spread this technique as an influencer and also give workshops and turn his workshop into a museum- this way more people will get to know about him and the lost ancient tradition and support his amazing art!!
It’s beautiful to see the value of quality exceed quantity and monetary success. You can tell these people take pride in their work above all else
Something that is so crazy and hard to comprehend is just how much time and how many trials and errors went into perfecting every single thing on this planet basically
Billions of people live more comfortably with better health and technology etc. because a few percent of the total number of human beings devoting themselves to lives of painstaking research, artistry, trial-and-error - even something we consider as "simple" as the incandescent light-bulb took years of research to perfect. This is also why broad access to higher quality education is so important - we need to encourage that intellect, curiosity, creativity in the select few that are capable of creating world-changing technologies. We really should be venerating these researchers, artists etc. over social-media figures, athletes etc.
1:13:45 I can well understand why many people feel reluctant to contemporary art. The abstract portraits in particular lack recognizable craftsmanship. Accordingly, the majority of the value does not arise from the "artwork" and its creation, but from speculation in the art market, because it is not at all about "art", but about investments coupled with the desire for increase in value over time.That actually has nothing to do with what most people understand as art and its inherent search for beauty, and accordingly the general rejection by most people is understandable.
Fun fact, abstract art only has value because in the late 50s, an artist begged his famous art critic friend to give him a good review. So the art critic, who actually hated his friends art, wrote a small review in a tiny publication that he thought no one would see. Well people did see it and abstract art exploded into popularity. So basically everyone is getting ripped off because one guy wanted to be nice to his untalented friend.
@carolallison9685 100% agree. It's also very offensive to the real masters of a craft and artists at the beginning of this documentary 😢
I taught - are you kidding me ?! Fingerpainting dots ?!!
That's what the kiddies in the kindergarten do...
@@katarinatibai8396 It really did feel like the end segment came out of nowhere. Like here's a man who scoured 1st century documents to figure out the lost art of making tyrian pigment, here's a guy whose family is made of blacksmiths and they make the most amazing (and honestly beautiful) scissors in the world, here are the women who create extraordinarily high quality paintbrushes with decades of experience behind them, this man and his son use ultra rare goat hair to create exquisite calligraphy brushes, and... here's a guy who finger painted dots onto a canvas. like honestly it truly is offensive to put that in a video showcasing these master craftsmen
Modern art hates beauty, that's why it's so vile.
"we have to be very careful about over harvesting" ... "I used 800lbs of snails to dye this scarf and im not finished yet"
Yeah what a waste
Which means it's taking probably years to finish the scarf. It's not a waste since every inch of the snail's being used.
eactly, that was what I was thinking, you can achieve that colir purpe just by mixing blues and pinks.. hs endavours are admirable but unnecessary and he is killig the snails for nothing. Theory is aso useful, it need no tbe accompanied by wholesale slaughter just to prove a point.
@@BrokensoulRider yes it is
LMAO 😭😭😂
Im Tunisian and this is the first time i heard of Ghassen and his insane dedication 😭
I live in the Piedmont region of the USA……the “foot of the mountain “. Our soils contain high concentrations of iron oxides, eroded and oxidized ancient mountains, of which the Appalachians are the remnants. I harvested everything I could get my hands on to make various colors of paint……the resulting paintings made a show I called, “Dirty Pictures”. Fun! Quite crude compared to the Gamblin suppliers’ pigments. I’m going to order some of those right away!
I admire Japanese how they can still manage to hold on traditional work and put great effort for it.
me too!
Part of those traditional virtues is what is destroying Japanese society today.
I imagine it has something to do with the rigorous caste system of years past, and also the isolationism. Globalization is the mortal enemy of traditionalism, and Japan's youth today reflects that, with increasingly fewer people still continuing these traditional crafts.
The caste system was divided between labourers of different skills. So over hundreds of years, you would find that the same families are still doing the exact same thing, since there was basically no way for peasants to move up in the caste system. The highest of the merchants were probably the only people with any upwards mobility in the ranks.
So there would be families that do the same thing for generations, teaching their increasingly specialized and expert skills to their children. With the end of Japan's isolationism in the 1800's, and with the start of modern globalization, there was lessening focus on the traditional crafts, and more focus put towards modern or even just new traditional crafts from other countries.
They became isolated again in the late 1800's-early 1900's, but then after WW2, their doors were basically smashed open to welcome the outside world completely. That's when traditional Japanese crafts were basically thrown out to welcome the easier and newer industries.
As an artist, anytime I see some effectively ancient craft shop my heart melts over the dedication of the workers to providing such amazing materials, because while it sounds pretentious high quality materials really do make a difference.
Most people don't appreciate how expensive art is to produce.
Nor the time it takes to learn and produce.
Yeah, the people at the art factory work long hours.
too many people think the quality of the art supplies is what makes quality art
@@Robalogotthat's true
@@Robalogot The quality of the art supplies absolutely affects the quality of the art. It’s a clue to the artist’s self-respect, respect for the product, and respect for the purchaser. Rothko comes to mind.
Fantastic collection of artisan stories!
Money laundering makes art expensive
100%
Came here to look for this comment after seeing the title lol
Nah, that's just oversimplification
Kabaam!😂
Are Bonsai trees expensive because of money laundering?
On a miserable, dark and rainy day, this program is very inspiring and it cheers my heart. Thank you ❤
It was really cool to see the actual women who have made a handful of my brushes. 😀 I appreciate that.
The section on oil paint was a bit BS'itty, considering the mentioned pigments. Tyrian purple has never been used in oil paint. It's way too substandard and fugitive. Tyrian Purple is, as was said previously, a collector's item. It has no practical use, as it's inferior to all other purple colorants in every way. 'Purple Lake' was historically a purple variant made from Cochineal insects, not snails. Today it's usually a Quinacridone. They also never ran out of Mummies. (there were plenty of them, in Egypt they even used mummies as fuel for the steam engines of a railway). They ran out of social acceptance, as society emerged from the gritty medieval ages (people were quite upset, at least one artist held funeral services for Mummy paint). And Mummy was also fugitive and thus unsuitable for permanent work. Cobalt Blue is not expensive because of the process temperature. Synthetic Ultramarine is in the furnace for 18-20 hours and is fairly cheap. Cobalt Blue is expensive because Cobalt is expensive and toxic, and the pigment's properties (extreme permanence) are little sought after outside the art material market. Thus it's not mass produced, which makes it even more expensive. Production volume is a major reason for cost of pigments. Even pigments which were difficult to develop and are extremely difficult to synthetize, eventually come down in price, if there is a sizeable market asking for them, thus driving mass production processes. The car, ceramic tiles and sign industries' demands for durable colors, is what has driven the emergence of fairly affordable modern fast pigments.
Iron Oxide/Hydroxide pigments are the most important colored pigments in the world. They are also the most important Art pigments. They are in many ways the very best pigments there are. Synthetic Iron Oxide pigments can be a bit disappointing for artist use, but on the other hand we are running out of good natural deposits. Mining sludge from old mines, for pigment, seem like a brilliant idea. I was really happy to see this.
The last section, on modern art, blah. 🤨
I gotta tell this to someone who gets it, I ruined my favorite Kolinsky. I forgot it in a bag, that I left out at our balcony (I spilled booze on it and it stank horrible, promptly forgot I meant to wash it), thought for months that Ive lost it some weird way, found my outdoors painting back again, opened it and.. moths had eaten every single hair! Ill admit, I cried. I was so mad with myself, just looked at the empty ferrule and bawled. And I ruined 3 cheaper, but loved sable brushes by forgetting them in water for three days, when our cat had medical emergency. That only stung a bit, I was mostly happy the cat was ok, but I wasnt that excited about my newly made sable hair soup.. When I told my husband, he just shrugged and told to buy new ones, but these were my babies. Only a fellow artist understands.
Thanks for your observations. Most informative.
Well you seem like you know what you're talking about so I'll agree with you. I don't know anything about art, but like knowing how things are made. I also don't like bs
I didn't understand the point about 'only women can make the brushes'. The narrator said because of 'dexterity', but that's a non-sequitur. If women have better dexterity then all the best surgeons would be women. I think what he meant to say is that men aren't interested in a brush-making career.
@@janemiettinen5176 You sound like a very irresponsible type -- I'm not an artist, but I do use sable brushes in my work, and even a $5 sable brush is always immediately cleaned and pointed, after every use. If you switch to bulk brushes 100/pack or 200/pack, you'll have much less stress about it. Don't fight against your personality... go with the flow. Use the cheapies and throw them away after use. No more crying.
Nice to see fine hand crafted items carefully made to last in an age where low quality and high quantity items are everywhere.
“Art is anything you can get away with.” -Andy Warhol.
@Based - The same with any capitalist commodity or service.
@@MossyMozart EXACTLY
People always get so many likes for commenting the most obvious things. Every single person knows is subjective.
Heh, Andy should know! 😂😂
Oh yes, good ol' Andy got asway with blatant stealing from other, less known artists. :/
That acid mine water is what the Mayan's used to soften granite rock so their walls would fit together so exactly. There's an interesting video by Ancient Architects about it.
Thank you very much for this information. I never heard about this. How incredibly interesting! 👍
Grt❣️Thank you for creating this lovely vdo | So kind of you always, keep it up!
I'm so happy, that some of my iron oxide paints are recycled from this muck, so it's helping to clean up the environment! I love Iron Violet
Anyone saying Tax fraud doesn't understand the majority of art... As a artist and a wife with a bachelor of fine arts. almost 90% of all art is not tax write offs and most artists struggle and their mediums are very expensive. support artists!
Look me I don't care what you have to say no one has to spend 30 grand on the f****** brush. Sorry but while I don't think that people should buy cheap rubbish there is no way that anyone with any brains is going to buy anything like this you can do just as good with synthetic stuff. This is just fraud all the way and they are laughing at you all the way to the bank bank.
'Tax write offs' don't have anything to do with it. It's MONEY LAUNDERING. For example, say a foreign country like China wants to pay Joe Biden to do something. So they 'buy' a 'painting' from his son, Hunter, for $500,000. Obviously he's not an artist. It's a doodle he did while he wash high, and not worth any money at all, let alone $500,000. So, Hunter passes the money to Joe, in exchange for a small piece of the action (he's a bag man).
The crime is Joe Biden selling his elected office to a foreign country, not 'tax fraud'. But of course, he can't report that duffel bag full of cash on his taxes, because it will require him to explain where it came from. So, tax fraud is just a side effect of influence peddling.
Modern art does not deserve any recognition though
@@MiScusi69 Of course it does. Art is art.
Most great artists die broke and unappreciated. It's the artists like Thomas Kinkade who achieve fame and fortune within their lifetimes. I'm sorry; I realize it's not fair.
That explains why artists are so attentive and choosy when they are painting. And why professional art materials can be so costly. Very interesting video, thank you for sharing!😊
@41:15 so we're just going to ignore the fact that the only thing he had to say about the practice of using crushed up human remains as pigment was that it was perfect for some flesh tones?
Ghassan, the purple dye artist, hats off to you bro. So glad they featured your rediscovered ancient skilled craft. Thank you for the insight. You deserve much wealth for your tentative ambition. Well done, Ghassan. Very well done indeed! 👏🙌👌✌️💪💐🌹🙇♀️❤️
As an artist, what bothers me about pieces that look like they were just slopped together is that there are people out there who put months into their work, use multiple skills to make massive pieces of mixed media art and get absolutely zero for them, despite only charging a miniscule portion of the millions the other pieces go for, and have people just telling them their work isn't worth that much. I've personally sold a few pieces maxing out around $50 and I'm genuinely worried about posting a piece I am going to charge $500 for for exactly that reason, despite my over 25 years of experience, multiple different types of classes and courses as well as continued practice with the help of teachers and university taught artists on UA-cam, the use of multiple types of media and it being genuinely aesthetically pleasing on an objective level. I'm not saying I'm amazing at art but it is pretty and there are years of knowledge and experience behind it and still I feel like I would be cheating people out of money even thought in the art world $500 is really not all that much.
You need to target filthy rich people. Your customer base isn't bougie enough. Your customers like pretty things, bazillionaires don't. The uglier the better.
Hey man, I totally get you.
However as a fellow artist who also keeps learning I have to tell you:
Your art is never about technique or how personally you see it. It's about the vallue you produce for others.
So tell your story and vallue yourself, sell it for 1000 instead of 500, MAKE others vallue your art.
It's about creating vallue through storytelling. In short: MARKETING!
@@Kirrie_Sushicat I totally get you. I ended up paying it as an auction. It starts at $500 and as soon as the first person interested says they want it for $500 the war begins. People then have a week to make their bid and the highest bid wins.
*I haven't received a single one*
So I really can't expect to ever get $500 for it, let alone $1k. That said, I only showed it to my Instagram followers, and well, a heck of a lot of people scrolling specific related hashtags but that's had the potential of an upwards of tens of thousands of people seeing my art and it's price and not a single bid, but that's not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.
If you have any advice about where to post, that would be a massive help. I do plan to post on Reddit though. I'm just not quite yet sure where. I plan to look up and check out multiple at selling related subs.
@@paranoiarpincess well. Know your audience. What people are those? Are they poor students/very normal people? If yes, they would never pay more than 100 bucks for art. If that's the case, sell art prints for 5-25$ or downloadable digital content.
Rich people don't care about the quality of art. If you can make yourself be memorable to them, they will gladly use your art to laundry money.
@@Kirrie_Sushicat it's insanely depressing how right you are about that. The rich people thing that is. I fully plan to make prints and I know a few people who would buy those. Thing is, my art is 3D so the originals are SO much better, and not just because they're original.
Respect to these artisans for the beautiful traditional craftsmanships, leaving a cultural legacy behind. I sincerely hope the passion will be nurtured and passed onto the next generations.
Art has always been expensive. That's why historically artists have noble patrons to pat for it. The higher quality equipment one require, the more expensive it is.
Sumi-e ink is one of those heritage crafts that, if the market truly demanded it, could readily be scaled through the use of automation. However, the artists and calligraphers who use the ink value the craftsmanship behind the inks that they use as much as the ink itself. So even if you could use industrial processes to produce an identical product, that isn't really what they want for their pieces. Maybe they would use those ink sticks to practice with, but for the calligraphy or paintings that they intent to pass on or sell, they would want something with more heritage and tradition behind it.
Having used a few different grades of brushes while painting, I can 100% understand the demand for high quality brushes. Particularly if you work in washes and tints. Working with thicker media like undiluted oil paints and acrylics, you can readily make due with lower quality synthetic brushes that have the right spring force and shape, but if you use thin paints like watercolor and gouache, or thinned out washes of acrylic or oil paint, then the way a higher quality brush loads and dispenses this thinner paint is priceless to you.
I have some kolinsky sable brushes. They were indeed expensive, but my teachers explained they were essential to get the best watercolouring possible :)
... and of course you believed it... hope you are a total expert now, because you use these brushes...
36:15 Dude has the most rocking beard I’ve ever seen in my life.
I mean, the rest of us shampoo, oil, trim, shape and pamper our freakin face hair and call it ‘effort’… but this dude has managed to grow solid 12 hairs on his chin to a respectable length, and maintain them just as they are without feeling the need to give up and just say - ‘Ahh screw it I can’t grow facial hair’ and then cut those lil’ whiskers off… and I call that sheer dedication… at least more than any of us will ever know or understand in a single lifetime 🙇🏻♂️ 👏 👏 👏
I did NOT expect the Tyrian guy to sound like that.
The process makes the journey more worthwhile 😍
Fully convinced Japan is really good at overcomplicating and over perfecting things
"And as I licked the flavor off the inside of the popcorn bag, I became one with the salt. My spirit melted like the butter" - Japanese man describing how and why he dedicated 70 years of his life to being the best popcorn bag licker.
They did well with kamikazes
remove the perfecting
Absolutely stunning mastery of their arts. The price of the end result is the cost of the creators life who perfected the excellence. Let us celebrate the masters 🙌👌
I can listen to the narrator's voice all day long. Watching an interesting topic at the same time is just a bonus. JAJAJA
I’ve used inexpensive (low end) sumi and it is a treat to use and see the results. So black and smooth. I can only imagine how delightful high end sumi feels and looks.
And yet people ask artist to sell artworks for free😑
Quite A Fantastic Video. Truly Fascinating ❤👏🏿👍🏿💯
When it comes to quality, as you go up in quality, price increases intensely for small changes. There is a uniqueness too when something is made via traditional, human spirited technique , not just admirable for the difficulty of it, but because to a highly knowledgeable and experienced artist or collector can both see and appreciate these nuances that a typical person would overlook, or perhaps see but not understand what makes an ink, or an art peice have a powerful spirit and beauty to them.
I dont think this belittles modern inks or paints or artistic products that have created a fast and cheap "good enough" replacement , these are equally amazing discoveries , and sadly as the world constantly evolves, we lose some of these ancient industries , just as certain species go extinct, so too do our materials needed to recreate a moment in art history. I hope all these master craftsmen can continue their work as long as they are able. Its a lotus among so much murk and darkness that our world struggles through
Amazing peoples that love so much what they do ❤ how bless the artists are to use these oils..be blessed each one ❤️
It just goes to show you- quality is never achieved with mass production- but rather with human skill and passion and patience.
Pretty sure machines would do the same job with more precision, less health adversaries and ofcourse faster
@@some.generic.username5254 you’re not disproving my point.
Superb craftsman ship, loved it
Fantastic, I love when people work so hard to create something brilliant out of something devastating. Thank you, wishing you all the best of luck in your mission.😊
Just absolutely fascinating..amazing
Can we get the British and Japanese brush and ink makers together and just kinda see what happens?
Watching the craftsmanship is absolutely brilliant. Such care for the quality of the product, no wonder they are so expensive.
With all other examples you can see people loving their craft with passion... with modern art you can see a bunch of pretenders trying to defend the reason for their scam; no soul, no finesse, no function, only pretenses.
Same thing now with A.I. "art."
@@RyunoOhi At least AI art is sometimes aesthetically pleasing. I can't say I've enjoyed looking at any contemporary art. I do laugh and puke when someone calls themselves and "AI artist" though.
Ordering a pair of bonsai scissors tonight. Thank you for your beautiful craftsmanship.❣️
49:29 whenever i use brushes from Sally's workspace #7, they seem to flow on my canvas like only a true English river of saliva can 👍 👌
What a country Japan is! Such rich heritage, such incredible traditions, such an inspiring work ethic. I was so moved by the bonsai scissors story.
This is mesmerizing to watch. No wonder they are remarkably expensive.
"This pigment was made with mummies but we ran out" I'm sorry. WHAT?!?!??!? Why on EARTH would you do that?? 😭😭
Its the artist's effort that makes it special. The blood, sweat, and tears give meaning to art
true
The ink sticks were cool
I love these educational videos ❤❤❤
The entire modern "art" segment triggered tf out of me
This was an amazing documentary! Thank you
You guys should do Araish plaster from Rajsthan, its quite stunning and made with am interesting number of food ingredients
"oh my gawd I went through a lot of failures" Homie... I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT TONE FROM YOU
Interesting contrast of the craftsman clips with the abstract painting clip. While abstraction art is interesting it’s arguably easiest to con people with an abstract painting vs. the years of dedication needed to be a blacksmith, inkmaker, etc. I still really enjoy thought provoking abstract art…I just don’t know if it’s worth millions.
I really appreciate how this narrator always makes an effort to pronounce foreign words as authentically as possible.
it is so soothing to see its skilled people. I'm not a big fan of today's industries and waste! this is so durable in the long run! we need to go back in time and take care of what we have and live more sustainably! ❤️
Great work! Thank you for this compilation. I enjoyed watching and learning from it.
Brilliant...appreciate all of works
This is a beautiful, natural craft.❤
If I were the snail and my gland was getting cut right off while Im still alive, I'd turn purple too 😱
1:07:15 Mr. Yasuhiro! You do amazing work of art. I highly admire it.
I feel bad for the animals involved in these processes.
51:12 was my favorite one
The hol time I watched it I was so comforting 🥰
I love when the paint is rollled like that 🤤
I really gotta appreciate how mass production made it unnecessary to put so much effort into so many everyday things. Imagine having to train a dude for 10 years to step on some ink well.
I need some of that muck paint!!
I am in awe watching this… They do such an amazing job and it’s so tedious…. Crazy how talented they are. I could never afford anything they make but, WOW…
I find it interesting that the bonsai trees can be around eight hundred years old
Beautiful, to think these pratices have been passed down for generations... Its family secrets with super hard work and attention to detail. I love my sumi sticks and especially sumi gold. It is expensive for quality sticks but well worth it.
I really hope those guys that make the ink are generously payd for this job.
Absolutely amazing 🤩
Those poor guys in the soot room covered in black oil soot with no mask and no shoes should receive both and I’m sure a raise too. That’s what we call externalized cost
I never in my life thought that ink making is so complicated and delicate matter!!! These gentlemen are amazing skilful masters of their profession
How do you figure out 5000 years ago that you can just crush a snail take that gland and wash it,let it rot,dry it,then use it as dye
Like most things…by accident.
You find the remains of a snail that was crushed a few days ago. Maybe it was dropped by a sea gull onto some rocks. It fermented and then dried a bit. There's some beautiful purple leaking out. You've never seen a good purple dye until now so you find it amazing. You gather up some more of these snails and start figuring out how to best refine the pigment so you can make a one-of-a-kind present for that cute girl in the next village.
Then dive into the rabbit hole that is chocolate and its origin. THAT is also a truly amazing start. :-)