Hands, Heat, and Time
The making of Lac unfolds through heat and attention. The artisan sits close to a small furnace, embers glowing steadily. In one hand rests a slender wooden dowel. In the other, a strip of chapdi, Lac refined through careful preparation. The chapdi is pressed onto the dowel and brought near the fire. Slowly, the material softens. It is moved to a metal surface placed beside the furnace, warm enough to hold pliability, firm enough to guide form. This surface absorbs each movement, carrying the trace of every decision.
The Lac returns to the fire repeatedly. It is pressed, pulled, turned. The rhythm settles into the body. At the moment when the material opens fully, pigments are worked in by hand. Reds deepen. Ambers glow. Greens emerge gradually. Tools enter the process. Chisels mark. Wooden paddles guide. Iron blades cut and define. Each tool carries its own weight, its own sound, its own pace. What takes shape holds time, temperature, instinct, and inheritance within it.
For me, chapdi is an engagement with presence. Working with Lac becomes a practice of waiting. The rhythm belongs to the material. Heat sets the tempo. Touch responds. Time remains an active participant. The process becomes a shared attention rather than a directed outcome.
Between the Palace and the Pulse
Lac has moved through spaces of ceremony and daily life. Royal courts shaped it into jewellery and ornament. In Rajasthan and Bihar, red Lac bangles carry meanings of marriage, fertility, and continuity. In Andhra Pradesh, temple priests coat sacred objects with Lac. In Gujarat, Lac is applied to utensils, creating a natural non stick coating.
These practices extend across centuries. They meet modern histories through shellac records that carried sound from forest to factory. Lac travelled through sanctity, labour, and industry, holding memory in each transition.
This continuity draws me in. Lac holds age and relevance together. It remains organic. It remains archival. Even as it hardens, it preserves.
A Craft of Care
At the centre of Lac are the hands that sustain it. Across tribal regions of India, communities such as the Munda, Santhal, Oraon, and Jangid have cultivated Lac across generations. Knowledge moves through gesture and observation. Care extends to trees, insects, seasons, and timing.
The Manihars carry another strand of this lineage. Traditional bangle makers, they work with small fires and hand rolled tools in narrow lanes. Molten Lac moves from flame to form, shaped into bangles that carry protection, memory, and identity. Each bangle travels from wrist to wrist, from mother to daughter. The workshop holds a quiet intensity where colour meets repetition and time slows through focus.
Design histories often pass over these spaces. Lac holds their presence through patience and relationship. Care appears in small gestures. A joint smoothed by hand. A cultivator waiting for the right season. A shared rhythm between person and material.