Jar with tortoiseshell hexagon design in colored inlay.

Yasuzumi Nakao

Colored inlay is a ceramic inlay technique in which a delicate porcelain surface is engraved using a minute tool to cut fine line patterns that cannot be created by brush; patterns are cut while the unglazed porcelain is soft, and wax is used to maintain the edges and then pigments are embedded; for each color, wax is completely fired and this process is repeated to complete the work. In the stippling inlay technique, while the porcelain surface is still soft, dots are engraved using a sewing needle and then pigments are rubbed in.