This May promises to be a busy month in our Central Embassy Shop. The opening of the Park Hyatt Hotel upstairs on May 12th coincides with the 3rd anniversary of the shopping mall as well as our 'jewel box shop' anniversary. This flurry of activity has also initiated various other events and activities.
Our Central Embassy store with straw marquetry walls and mural in abalone, lacquer, silver and gold leaf.
As part of the celebrations we have created a special new natural lacquer and leaf finish that we have applied to our special edition Pebble Box collection.
Carved from a solid piece of wood entirely by hand, the boxes are then covered with many layers of lacquer in different depths.
The Pebble Boxes were inspired by Nanjing Yuhua Shi (rain flower stones); adored sedimentary pebbles found rubbed smooth by centuries of movement in the Yangtse River. Smooth and organic in shape, they express an alchemy of materials and layers; folded together; rubbed through, giving an effect similar to works of Damascene steel or Japanese Mokume-gane. This sense of layers being pressed together and gradually exposed is found beautifully in nature too - worn driftwood; the rings of ivory; cliffs opened by the elements to show millenia of geological strata. Even glaciers carry exquisite layers that explain changes in our planets meterological past. Precious and semi-precious stones like labradorite, opals and agate are rich with layers of colour.
Our boxes, we feel, are as precious as any possession we may chose to keep inside them.
Left, worn sedimentary pavement block; right, Chinese Yuhua stone trader - the stones are shown inside water-filled porcelain bowls to best see their colours.
Chinese meditation stones. Photo from Mémoire de la Chine - Hommage à François Dautresme by Musée des Arts décoratifs de Bordeaux.
Natural sedimentary layers of rock exposed by the elements.
If you are in Bangkok, come and visit us on the 2nd floor and see the various events starting May 18 through June 30.
K. Beau our store manager, seen here arranging the window display.
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