2017 & 2021, Reviving heritage craft
Kerria Lacca is a project that aims to uplift heritage crafts from the brink of extinction by placing them in new contexts and integrating them into contemporary production.
The project focuses on the lac bug (Kerria lacca), a small insect native to southern Asia that secretes a resin used as the main ingredient in shellac. Usually, this resin is dissolved using chemicals, but for the Kerria Lacca mirrors and bowl bases, I applied a different method known as lac-turnery.
Kerria LAcca
Lac-turnery is a centuries-old craft originating in India, traditionally used in toy-making. The resin is heated, dyed with organic pigments such as indigo, madder root, and turmeric, and formed into sticks.
While the wooden base rotates on a lathe, the lac stick is pressed against it; friction melts the resin, coating the surface. The lacquer hardens within seconds, allowing the artisans to create soft, rounded shapes with precision.
The bases are crafted from off-cuts from toy production, giving them a leveled, sustainable shape. Green tones are derived from indigo and turmeric, while deep blue-black comes from indigo.
The objects were produced in collaboration with a mostly female Fairtrade cooperative in southern India. Many people associate words like “Fairtrade,” “craft,” or “female artisan” with cheap, mass-produced gift-shop objects.
The goal of Kerria Lacca is to challenge these preconceptions and elevate the status of heritage craft, treating it as something deserving of time, attention, effort, and financial investment.
The first seeds of the project were planted in 2018 during my Master’s Thesis in Industrial Design at the Industree Craft Foundation in Bangalore. Industree works to tackle the root causes of poverty by creating ownership-based, organized creative manufacturing ecosystems for micro-entrepreneurs.
My research explored how NGOs could act as intermediaries to establish successful designer-artisan collaborations and how designers could contribute to fair, responsible production practices. The ultimate goal was to make it easier for designers to take responsibility over the production process.
The Swedish-produced version of the mirror features a base made from ash wood coated with hard wax oil.
This work was presented at the Cumulus Conference: Diffused Design Transitions in Wuxi, China, 2018.
Kerria Lacca was exhibited at Galleri Slätten 2021 and Southern Sweden Design Days 2021.