Vietnamese Lacquerware

Lacquer is considered as one of painting materials in Vietnam. This is the discovery and technology development from traditional craft painting of Vietnam to specific lacquer painting. However, the word “lacquer” is usually misunderstood as fine art painting in Japan and China. Noticeably, there is great difference between the art-painted handicrafts and Vietnamese lacquer.

Lacquer paintings use traditional color materials of painting art such as paints with the color of “canh gian” (cockroach wings), “then” (black), “son” (red), silver, gold and shell on the black canvas. At the beginning of the 1930s, the first Vietnamese painters who studied at Indochina School of Fine Arts discovered other color materials such as egg shell, bamboo outer, etc, especially, they invented the grinding technique and created unique lacquer technique and lacquer paintings actually appeared. The term “lacquer” and “lacquer painting” also appeared then. Paintings are created, then grinded many times until meeting the expectation of the painter and finally polished.

It is often noted that lacquer painting has some “paradox” features. To have it dry, it must be kept in heat with high humidity. The cold and dry weather prevents it from being ever dry. To see the painting, it must be grinded.

Most painters agree that lacquer painting technique is difficult and random; therefore, even many experienced painters get big surprise to see the lacquer paintings after grinding.

Materials used for decoration

A lacquer painting uses a lot of materials such as paint, color and other materials. Some common materials can be mentioned as follows:

Paint: made from the melanorrhoea laccifera Pierre or oil from Canarium, Ficus, resin, do…
Color: traditional lacquer uses common color types: black and red canhgian (cockroach wings). They are from inorganic minerals; therefore, cannot be decomposed in light and time.
Products from silver such as bacthep, bacdan, bacxay, bacdam…
Products from gold such as vangthep…
Other materials: egg shell, pearl shell, snail shell…

Today, industrial paints are created to replace traditional lacquer paints because of their advantages especially convenient for making paintings and diversity of color.

Main stages of lacquer technique:

Lacquer technique has common features but different in experiences and techniques of each painter or family. The technique to make a lacquer is also different from that of statues or other decorations. Lacquer painting has following stages:
Vietnamese lacquer art is an extremely labor – intensive and time- consuming work. Every Vietnamese lacquerware usually goes through 20 stages not less than 100 days regardless it is a large picture or just some small lacquerware pieces such as bowls or even coasters. There are actually 3 kinds of lacquerware: Mother – of – pearl, eggshell, painting or any of the combination of these three.
First of all, however, we must select the suitable wood for every Vietnamese lacquerware: rose, cherry or walnut wood for the furniture, screens or jewelry boxes, ebony for statues; jack fruit wood for boxes, bowls, plates and plywood for paintings. The wood then will be filled with a layer of natural lacquer which gradually seeps through to a core of wood to make it harder and against any rotting by insects.
Besides, the raw lacquerware also covered with a piece of gauze to prevent any crack or curving shape. Still the raw material will bear 5 more layers of lacquer to hide the gauze and to reach the necessary thickness. However, in between each layers of lacquer, the lacquer artist must wait until the lacquer get dried and then rub it in water. The work will be repeated many times (some times up to 15 lacquer layers or more) until the lacquerware becomes totally smooth.

Lacquer – Sources, Extraction, And Mixtures

The lacquer is a resin of the lacquer tree planted mostly in the Northern Vietnamese province of Phu Tho and has its scientific name: Rhus Succedanea. First extracted from a tree, the lacquer is white, condensed like milk then turning brown in the air and gradually becoming black when dried. Once hardened the lacquer forms a lustrous durable surface that is imperious to moisture, insects, and oxidization making it ideal for preserving materials, such as wood and bamboo. Actually, the lacquer tree is also planted in the highland Vietnamese province of Lam Dong to supply Southern market. From the natural lacquer, the lacquer artist will mix it with some mineral pigments to produce other kinds of lacquer: cockroach – colored lacquer, lacquer for sticking mother – of -pearl and eggshell and lacquer for covering on the top.

Mother – Of – Pearl Lacquerware

A variety of mother of pearl from the sea will be cut into different shapes with the thickness of about 2 mm each. The Vietnamese lacquerware artist then draws the designs over its surface and uses a coping saw to cut them into small pieces, which are eventually gathered and inlaid on the lacquerware.
Once being inlaid, the mother of pearl design is a bit thicker than the surface of the wood. Hence, the lacquerware artist will apply a mixture of natural lacquer and plaster to build up the lacquerware surface step by step until it reaches the same level.
The mother – of – pearl, however, in natural state has no details like the eyes, the nose of a person or animal and other small things in the design. The lacquerware artist will use a very pointed knife to carve the details, which make the design more lively and attractive. Still each Vietnamese lacquerware will be filled with about 10 layers of lacquer and in between each layer, the lacquerware artist will wait until it is dry and do the rubbing in water. The work will finish when the lacquerware reaches the highest smoothness. Last stage but not least is the lacquerware-polishing stage.

Eggshell Lacquerware

Duck eggshell is specially applied in Vietnamese lacquerware and it is the shell of the ducks already hatched because of its thickness and whiteness. The eggshell will be stick onto the lacquerware following the ready – made design then filled with ten layers of lacquer and rubbed in water.
Duck eggshell in natural state is white then the next step, the Vietnamese lacquerware artist will color the eggshell by using the mineral pigments mixing with some chemical dyes to reach the highest smoothness, then covered with many layers of lacquer and again rubbed in water in between each layer. The final stage is lacquerware-polishing stage.

Painting Lacquerware

The Vietnamese lacquerware artist will paint directly on the ready – treated wood by using the mineral pigments mixing with lacquer. Like the two other kinds of Vietnamese lacquerware, painted lacquerware will be filled with many layers of lacquer and rubbed in water until it becomes totally smooth. Lacquerware-polishing is the final stage.

Lacquer Ware Polishing

Lacquerware-polishing plays an important role in the Vietnamese lacquerware creation process. The lacquer ware, after many times rubbing in water is smooth but not shiny. Therefore, the lacquerware artist applies the palm of the hand together with abrasive as diverse as charcoal and iron oxide to polish the lacquerware. Polishing hardened lacquer with such materials & technique finally brings the lacquerware surface to a high gloss.
The lacquerware, after being polishing, like a mirror as you can catch a reflection of yourself in it when you look at. Each Vietnamese lacquerware bears all the hard work of many Vietnamese lacquerware artists not less than 100 days.

Some Traditional Lacquer Villages in Vietnam
Cat Dang Traditional Lacquer Village, Nam Dinh Province
According to ancient records, Cat Dang lacquerware has a history of more than 600 years, founded by forefathers Ngo Duc Dung and Ngo An Ba. At present, in Cat Dang Village, there are temples and traditional festivals to show gratitude and merit to the career founders. Cat Dang lacquerware uses traditional materials and is practiced manually with optical paint products, mainly worshiping, and decorating religious works. Traditional products are altarpieces (strokes – drawings) and fragmented. Currently, Cat Dang has 360 households and 63 enterprises producing and trading the products of lacquer craft villages. There are about 2,400 people practicing, mostly women. Fourteen senior craftspeople hold the craft village technique. Domestic and foreign consumption markets create a large demand for goods. In 2017, the handicraft village of Cat Dang was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Ha Thai Traditional Lacquer Village, Hanoi.
According to the researchers, Ha Thai Village, lacquer dates from the sixteenth century. Previous studies show that Ha Thai Village has more than eight hundred households but only about four hundred household producers. Currently, Ha Thai Village is planned to be one of the six tourist villages in Hanoi. The production stages, raw materials, and products here have many similarities with those in other traditional paint villages. The lacquer works of Ha Thai have been inventoried and listed as intangible cultural heritage of Hanoi.

Traditional Lacquer Works in Tuong Binh Hiep, Binh Duong Province
Son Mai in Tuong Binh Hiep is well known and preferred by customers, because each stage, from wood material processing to final product, requires meticulous and sophisticated artistic skill. Each painting process takes from three to six months to ensure quality requirements. From 1975 until now, after many changes, the lacquer industry here is stable and developed. Traditional lacquer is still popular, and a variety of modern designs have been developed, suitable for new taste of customers. The most famous and unique is the embossing lacquer. Traditional lacquer here is very advanced and creates more jobs. In 2016, traditional lacquerware in Tuong Binh Hiep was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Source: http://vietnameselacquer.blogpot.com
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