Lacquerwork is Sri Lanka handicraft from
the Kandyan provinces. Lac is a resin secreted from the bark of certain trees
that have been infested with the lac beetle. The resin is scraped from the
bark, melted and strained. While the lac is soft, pigment is beaten in to
produce the desired colour and left to dry. Lac is applied in two different
techniques.
The method called spool-work is practiced with
applying a stick of lac to the object fixed onto a spindle of a lathe machine.
The resulting friction caused by the revolving objects melts the lac making it
seep into the grain making a glossy coating on the object. Ornaments, walking
sticks, book-ends, ash trays letter-openers, wooden handles etc are decorated
with Lacquerwork .
The method called nailwork is practiced by
using a thumbnail to fashion the thread of lac.
In addition to these traditional methods,
today, Lacquerwork is also produced by an inferior method: painting the object
and covering it with layers of varnish.
No comments:
Post a Comment