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context: lacquerwork > technical
How is lacquer used?
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Contemporary artist Ichishima Ogyo's Autumn Whirl box |
Lacquer is applied in very thin layers (I've seen 1/20th of a millimetre quoted as typical - that is a fiftieth of an inch), each of which take anything from 2 days to a month to dry. Depending on many factors, a lacquered item can require up to hundreds of layers - this extreme would be on the most deeply carved items. Each layer needs to harden before extensive polishing is done, in most cases. Items routinely take months to make, sometimes even a couple of years.