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Unic Home Paris history: a family story The founder is a Vietnamese who came in France in the 60's for studying medicine. He became doctor for more than 20 years and then decided to turn back to Vietnam. There, he got the opportunity to go into furniture's business and with his wife, raised up a factory late 90's, mainly specialized in lacquered and wooden goods. He developed his markets in SE Asia and in the US and even some spots in Europe. v Early 2005, his daughter and her husband created the French branch for developing the market in Europe. The office and show-room are located in Paris. Production : v Location : Hô Chi Minh City in Viêtnam v Factory : 10 000 m2 - 240 workers v Production: Traditional handicraft Each piece is unique and requires hours of patience and attention for 12 lacquering operations with washing, rinsing and pouncing stages between each lacquered layer. v Technique of lacquerwork: Lacquer is a product characteristic of oriental Asia. Originally, the tree producing lacquer (rhus vernicifera) which, native of China, was transplanted in Vietnam, in Korea and in Japan. The lacquer is extremely resistant in the water, in the heat and in the acids, so that applied to the wood beforehand coated with a varnish or with a hemp cloth, it lends itself admirably to its conservation and to its decoration. Many layers (up to 30 for the most precious pieces) are needed, taking care that each layer is dried in wet medium before adding the following one. The quality of the last layer determines the quality of the object. Lacquers are painted, sculptured, incrusted with gold, silver, bronze, eggshell or mother-of-pearl. The brilliant, matt or satiny finish is obtained by the succession of layers of colorless varnish. The polishing with a special paste performed with the palm of the hand, gives to the varnish this depth sweetness so characteristic of the lacquer. Today, because of its allergenic character, the natural lacquer is replaced by synthetic products. These components also allow to decrease the time of drying and especially offer an infinite range of colors. Furthermore, modern material as fiberglass or MDF (Medium density fiber) are also used, which avoids cracking risk of natural wood. The applied technique requires however same ancestral patience and accuracy. The stages of the traditional lacquering: q The lacquer is bound to a finely crushed mixture of rocks, sawdust and alluvial clay : one layer is applied on the object. q When this layer is dry, the object is sanded in the water. q With a paintbrush, another layer of mixture of lacquer and alluvial clay is applied. q After drying, the object is carefully pounced with charcoal in order to erase any track of paintbrush. The pouncing is always made under the water so that no dust comes scoring the surface. q These operations are repeated about 12-20 times. q The motif is then applied. Each piece is then unique. q 2 last layers of colorless lacquer which will protect from scores will finish the product. q The object is finally polished with wax. Using this process, it may take up to 3 months for creating one object ! Collection : The French brand is developing modern lacquered design based on pure lines and simple but colorful shapes, making the bet of a large range of colors besides classical colors such as black & white or red. The collection includes big and small furniture, decoration, lamps. Designers : Christophe & Tô Quynh Gandolphe, Khoa Pham