After obtaining his diploma in cabinet making from the Ecole Boulle in 2001, he devoted himself to traditional and contemporary finishing techniques.
During a conference, he discovers Japanese lacquer and begins to be fascinated by this exceptional technique known in Japan under the name of “urushi”. Nicolas Pinon decided to go to Barcelona in 2003, to the EPSAR (Escuela Profesional Superior de Arte y Restauración), to learn the techniques of this material. Upon his return to Paris, he joined the Brugier workshop, where for three years he perfected his restoration skills and made decorations for sites all over the world.
To perfect his knowledge, he decided to go to Japan where, during his first trip in 2006, he met the great master lacquerer Nagatoshi Onishi, a former professor at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo.
During his numerous stays with this master as an apprentice, he learned the ancestral technique of kanshitsu, which has been using canvas, clay and lacquer for more than a thousand years to make the structure of statues for temples.
In 2008 he became a freelance lacquerer and decorator and has collaborated on numerous projects, notably with Jacques Garcia and Joseph Karam.
Since 2013, he devotes himself exclusively to Japanese lacquer and shares his activity between restoration and creation of jewelry or furniture.
Today, while working on lacquer according to traditional techniques, he carries out research, using new technologies. He is currently working on flexible supports in 3D printing and laser engraving of lacquer.