Stocker Studio - Lacquer & Textures

21/07/2026

An encounter on rue Bonaparte.

Paris, 1974. A sixteen-year-old apprentice enters an apartment to collect a 1922 lacquer screen for restoration.

The owner of the apartment is Eileen Gray. One of the greatest figures of 20th-century design.
That apprentice was me.

While restoring her famous "Brick Screen", I learned a fundamental lesson. Lacquer is not merely a decorative finish. It is architecture. Eileen Gray proved that a traditional Asian material could submit to strict modernist geometry.

Half a century later, this philosophy lives on in our Siem Reap studio.

Look at our Black Scale Console. It is a direct descendant of the Art Deco era. A waterfall silhouette. A rigorous, almost reptilian geometric pattern. First, we lay a foundation of natural eggshell. Then, millimeter by millimeter, we build the scales in dark lacquer.

There is no haste here. Only mathematical precision and over thirty layers of living resin.
The contrast between glossy lacquer and matte eggshell creates a depth that commands the light in a room.

What began with a touch of history in Paris, continues today.

— Éric Stocker.

17/07/2026

There are surfaces that reflect the world, and there are those that gently absorb it. Sand-finish lacquer is a distinct, deeply meditative chapter in the artistry of Stocker Studio.

Instead of traditional gloss, we cultivate a texture that teaches us to feel the stillness. By blending fine mineral particles into natural lacquer before applying it to Hevea wood, we achieve an entirely matte, warm, and subtly rough finish.

This Buddha sculpture is not meant merely to be observed from afar. It reveals its true essence when held in your hands. It is an artifact that rewards touch.

15/07/2026

«I am often asked why I haven't relocated our studio somewhere more accessible or cost-effective. The answer is simple: our craft cannot be uprooted.

The natural resin we work with is a living medium. It doesn’t dry like conventional paint; it cures, maturing layer by layer over a span of weeks. How the final surface reveals itself—the nuance of the pattern, the luster, the absolute depth of color—is dictated entirely by ambient humidity.

Here in Siem Reap, at the edge of the Angkor jungle, the atmosphere holds the precise moisture required for the resin to harden at its own deliberate pace. If the air is too dry, it fractures. Too humid, and it never truly sets.

This is why each piece we create is more than an act of craftsmanship. It is a collaboration with the climate itself. The artisan applies a layer, waits, and observes how the lacquer responds to the atmosphere of that specific day before moving forward. The very same motif will behave differently in the dry season than it does during the monsoons. We do not fight this nature; we work in dialogue with it.

That is why the art that leaves our studio cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world—even with the same hands and the exact same resin. The place matters.»

— Éric Stocker

Stocker Studio, Siem Reap

07/07/2026

07/07/2026

Time suspended in lacquer.

Step by step, the artisan crafts a mosaic from natural eggshell. Each tiny fragment is placed by hand onto a still-wet layer of natural lacquer.

In a world that moves too fast, time flows differently at Stocker Studio in Siem Reap. Completing a single panel requires weeks of meticulous work.

This is meditation transformed into art—a surface that invites touch.

Discover more about the philosophy of slow craft at our website

02/07/2026

From June to October, lacquer is harvested by hand in the forests of Kampong Thom.
A rare natural material, gathered slowly from living trees, it becomes the foundation for a year of work in the studio.

This is not synthetic finish, and not mass production. It is a seasonal ritual of collection, refinement, and patience — where every drop of resin carries the character of the forest and the hands that tend it.

What begins in the landscape of Cambodia ends as a refined surface of depth, warmth, and quiet complexity. That is the beauty of natural lacquer: limited by nature, elevated by craft.

26/06/2026

He spent three months on this urn. Right now, he's checking if it's ready.
Éric Stocker in his studio in Siem Reap, Cambodia — holding a hand-lacquered funerary urn with hand-painted hummingbird inlay. One of a kind. Made to last centuries.
This is what we do at Stocker Studio.

19/11/2024

Cave a cigare pour Siglo par
Eric Stocker Studio - Lacquer & Textures

01/08/2024

Straw marquetry

12/04/2024

Un grand merci à Siem Reap Insider pour ces belles photos de nos savoirs faire