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OPEN SOURCE / SHARING KNOWLEDGE/ ARCHIVE

Made by
Insects

Research into the Natural Polymer: Lac

Lac's Origin

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All the information and footage was collected during the Field research to Thailand, supported by Creasia Group.

Three Main Steps:

Washing and
Packing

Raw lac contains resin, wax, natural dye, beside other impurities such as wood particles, sand, etc. The first step of processing the material is washing, to remove the sand and wood chips but also to start and extract the natural dye. This semi refined form of the material called seedlac. The seedlac is in fact a sticklac that is crushed, washed and dried. Dried seedlac is winnowed to get a cleaner result and will later be processed into shellac. The principal involved is to melt the seedlac by application of heat and filter the molten mass through a cloth. The filtered mass is called ‘shellac’ which usually comes in thin flakes or in button shape.

Cultivating Lac

Harvesting Stick Lac

Stick lac arrives from the farms to the factory.

Gathering station

Washing and Packing

Screenshot 2565-06-14 at 11.07_edited.jp

Crashing stick lac

The material is being crushed several times.

Crashed stick lac called seedlac.

Seedlac

Natural dye extraction

The seedlac is being washed few times to extract the dye. The colour can have a bit of variations depending on the host tree.

Winnowing

Dried seedlac is winnowed to separate out the particles of sand, wood etc. After winnowing it is sieved in different sized.

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