A new kumiko build
January 4, 2025
Recently I completed a kumiko panel that uses a repeating asa-no-ha pattern. This is a pattern I have done before, but never with so many repeats. I was following instructions from Matt Kenney’s book, The Art of Kumiko, that I think is wonderful. I followed his instructions to build a table saw sled, as well as the layout of this pattern. Spoiler alert, this is not the only one I have built but more on that later. The kumiko triple was also one of his plans that I followed. This one is larger, for scale, it is about 13” x 13” in size and maybe 3/8” in depth.
I started by cutting the strips - and then I cut the corresponding grooves, known as half laps, where there need to be intersections of the gridwork. Some cut them in to a solid block of wood, and then cut into strips, but I have so far always made the strips first. The sled provides the magic to allow for all the grooves to be in the right places.
In this case, the pattern requires a small border of narrow boxes and then a main field of consistently shaped squares. The grid gets assembled and then we can get to work on the infill pieces that make up the pattern. These are cut to size either with a small Japanese hand saw or sometimes I will use the table saw and a cross cut sled. Then the angled ends of each infill piece get bevels cut in to them with jigs and a chisel. One bevel at a time, over and over and over again. I usually set up several jigs for each of the angles I need to cut, and can move from one to the next without resetting anything. It works for me.
This particular pattern just repeats in the same size again and again so that really minimized the number of changes I needed to make. I find that there is a flow state, or a “zone” that you get in to as you cut each and every piece. The parts are little bitty, and the chisel is very sharp and the only thing that holds the pieces in place is one of my fingers. You can’t space out or you will chisel in to your finger - but if you can keep that focus, the hours pass by before you know it. I really appreciate that state of mind where you are focused on a task, and can see the progress as you go - one piece after another.
This particular panel has a fabric covered plywood panel to go behind the kumiko and I built a frame using poplar. It is half lapped in the corners. I painted it with milk paint, then applied paste wax that I rubbed in with 0000 steel wool to get a nice matte appearance. I am very pleased with how this project turned out and will be building more from Matt’s book.
More pretty pictures in the gallery at Asa-no-ha wall panel.