Lacquerware-Channapatna

Wood and lac turnery thrived because of imperial support. Slowly, from the antiquated art of turning wood by hand, the craftsmen advanced to chipping away at a straightforward hand lathe. The advent of power lathes enabled greater output, combined with the economy in the cost of production and human labour. In an urban setup, female participation in the craft is more noteworthy.

“The production of lacquerware through the lac turnery process includes the utilization of both raw and processed materials. The business is subject to the wood for the essential crude materials. These backwoods-based items are the wood of the hale tree, lac produced by the insect, and the leaves of the talegari (palm leaf),”. “Hale wood is the essential crude material of lac turnery. It is extremely close-grained, moderately hard and easily turned into fine shapes by hand or machine. It has low dampness and oil content, which guarantees a phenomenal complete and translucency in the wake of cleaning.”