Lacquer Ware Have You Come From?

Day 2 in the redish arid landscape of Bagan. We drove across the street from the hotel (mind you, this was in a huge tourist bus) to view a cross built into the side of a pagoda. After our far excursion, we drove back to the hotel so our leader could do something he forgot. Our second outing of the day took us to the Thra bar gate where we stopped for 20 minutes to take pictures of two statues. This was truly thrilling.

When we had eaten lunch and rested at the hotel from 1-4pm (this was a good thing as it is the hottest part of the day and I had already died 3x over from heat exhaustion), we moved on to a lacquer ware shop to learn the lengthy process of bamboo and flexible horse hair lacquer pieces. High quality lacquer ware takes anywhere from 6 months to a couple years to make. First the lacquer must be harvested from lacquer trees—something akin to collecting rubber or maple tree sap. One needs something to lacquer next. Two main types of material used at the shop we stopped at: bamboo and horse hair. Bamboo is coiled or woven to form rigid shapes while woven horse hair is as flexible as rubber.

Once you have a specific object created, a coating of black lacquer, ash and clay is applied. The process shifts to a time consuming back and forth between layering lacquer, drying it in a cellar and sanding/washing it. When the desired shininess and thickness are achieved, the piece is either finished as a shiny black or sent on for scribing and coloring. Colored pieces have colored lacquer added until thick enough to scratch down into to create a design with various pointed tools similar looking to calligraphy pens or dental tools. Artisans can etch in lines or blocks for extremely intricate animals, scenery or geometric designs. In-between colors coats of clear lacquer are added. At this shop I only saw red, yellow, green and blue coloring. Pieces ranged from monochromatic to all available colors.

What makes lacquer ware unique is its ability to waterproof, shine, fireproof and make unbreakable whatever it coats. Road (or temple) side salespeople would often show us how a lighter would not burn the piece and smashing it on the ground would not nick or crack it.

For very in-depth information:
http://asianspiritgallery.com/burmese-lacquerware-burma-lacquer-ware/