Crafting a wide range of custom-made shoji screens

IN Japan, shoji screens are found in nearly every home, used instead of curtains to create privacy while letting in light. But Westerners have devised less traditional uses for these elegant screens, originally formed from wood and rice paper, says Hisao Hanafusa, a partner in Miya Shoji, a Manhattan company that has made customized Japanese screens for more than 40 years.

Free-standing folding screens are popular room dividers, particularly in small apartments. Shoji screens can be suspended from the ceiling to encase fluorescent lights. And sliding shoji screens are often substituted for doors between rooms. Properly waterproofed, a shoji screen can even be a shower curtain. ''This is America,'' said Mr. Hanafusa with a grin, tapping the bright blue frame of a free-standing screen.

Many customers like screens with elaborate fretwork in unusual patterns, he added. While the classic horizontal rectangles found on most Japanese screens are popular with purists, Miya Shoji also offers a variety of geometric designs and will create new ones on request. Mr. Hanafusa's $1,490 free-standing screen has three 24-inch-by-72-inch panels, with an Art Deco pattern in black laminated basswood. And a $1,000 free-standing screen with similar measurements looks like a Mondrian painting. ''That design is 400 years old,'' said Mr. Hanafusa.

Shoji screens originated in China and reached Japan via Korea. ''But the Japanese simplified them,'' Mr. Hanafusa said. His company usually uses basswood or red cedar because they do not warp. Finishes include a clear coating, wood stains and colored lacquers, usually black, though wilder hues like purple or yellow are available.

Most screens are fiberglass polyester instead of traditional rice paper. ''It looks like paper, but is very strong, long-lasting and can be cleaned,'' Mr. Hanafusa said. ''Americans don't want to change their paper every six months like the Japanese.'' Screens can also be ordered in cream-colored plastic-coated silk, which shows the fabric's grain, or plastic-coated rice paper, which is pretty but brittle.

The shop, in a converted horse stable on West 17th Street near Barneys New York, has a sampling of free-standing screens priced from $360 and shoji table lamps from $45. A basic 2-foot-by-3-foot basswood and fiberglass screen costs $145; rice paper and plastic screens cost $5 more and laminated silk $10 more. Paint and wood finishes are additional. Miya Shoji accepts mail orders and ships screens nearly anywhere.

East Meets West

Nguyen Van Lan, who owns the Japanese Screen Corporation, learned to make traditional shoji screens in Korea after escaping from his native Vietnam in a tiny boat. These days he designs and builds custom screens at his home in Queens, where he has a showroom.

Mr. Lan makes three types of screens: sliding screens, free-standing screens that fold in two directions and free-standing room dividers. He also blends Eastern and Western designs, as in a pair of wide-slat shoji doors designed for New York Telephone's corporate headquarters in White Plains. The door design can be specially ordered.

The screens have traditional hinge fittings instead of the staples used in cheaper, ready-made screens. Mr. Lan favors California redwood, which is light and durable, but will use costlier material on request.