Pelikan Maki-e Sea World Limited Edition

The Dragon year is finally here. Like other Chinese family, we have our reunion dinner on the eve of the Chinese New Year. One of our local popular dish is the stream boat and seafood.

When my family went shopping for our ingrediant at the wet market, the type of seafood available just reminded me of one pen; the Pelikan Maki-e Sea World Limited Edition.

This pen is a hate it or love it maki-e pen. As we only know how to eat the fish, we are not able to identify the type of fish the artisan painted.

The entire pen was decorated using the mother-of-peral inlay going the pen the necessary dimension and going us the feel of the water reflection when the light shine on it.

The big red fish on the pen cap caught our attention when we first held this pen on our hand. It caught our attention not because it is the biggest fish on the pen, but the way the eye was painted. We can really figure it out as to where it is looking. It a specific angle, we feel it is look at us, and other angle, it is looking down toward the turtle.

Beside the red fish, there another two smaller fishes swimming togather, like father and son. They aer swimming toward the red fish.

The turtle - the symbol for a long life - forms the centre-point of this pen. It is surrounded by numerous fish. Based on the write out by Pelikan, this motifs suppose to symbolize the history of the ocean (sea) ... did I hear someone shouting ... Long Live the Ocean, Long Live the Ocean.

Both the big red fish and the turtle are painted using the taka maki-e technique, a high relief lacquer technique.

The other fishes are are painted using togisahi maki-e technique.

The pen cap is also decorated using the maki-e technique too.
The “Sea World”, released in the year 2009, is available in a limited edition of only 88 pieces worldwide.