Lacquer

In southern China you will find many lac trees growing; he sap from the trees can be turned into a plastic like surface coating which is called lacquer. Lacquer can be spread over the surface of any wood or bamboo to make them water proof. It can be made into many different items, like cooking spoons, bowls, coffins, boat hulls, the possibilities are endless. In the Southern Song dynasty artisans were amazing at carving designs of flowers into lacquerware. The dynasty invented a process in which they took a wooden object as put as many as two hundred coats of lacquer. They layered many different colors. Once all the colors had been coated on, scroll patterns were carved on, showing all the colors that had been painted on! The end result was beautiful!