Lacquer is usually for precious, pricey stuff. Think handcrafted bowls and serving trays, religious artefacts in museum collections, and the facades of old shrines, temples and other architectural ...

A replica of a lacquer drum dating back more than 2,300 years on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing (JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY) At first, it appears to just be a piece of decayed wood.

The word urushi is said to have come from uruwashii, meaning “graceful” or “elegant,” or uruoi, “to become moist.” Sap produced by lacquer trees to repair cuts to their bark is harvested and refined ...

In the 6th and 7th centuries, Chinese artisans made human-size statues of the Buddha primarily from layers of lacquer, a tree resin. Only three from that era are known to survive, yet seeing them all ...

The sap earned from the lacquer tree, also known as ottchil in Korean, is a traditional, environmentally friendly lacquer that poses no harm to humans. When applied to wooden objects, natural varnish ...

Only the clear autumn sky and the peak of Mt. Bukhan accent Chung Su-wha’s lacquer paint workshop in northern Seoul. The 20-year-old workshop, known as Jangan Chilgi, sits humbly in Suyuri ...

Vietnamese lacquer painting, or son mai, has become a precious and unique artistic craft over the course of thousands of years. Its global reputation is to be fostered now the Ministry of Culture, ...