Kerria Lacca 2021
The bug-based lac-turnery revival.
This project aims to uplift heritage crafts from the brink of extinction,
by putting it in new contexts and using it in contemporary production.
Kerria Lacca
Also known as the Lac bug, lives on trees in southern Asia. The bug secretes a resin that is the main ingredient in shellack. The resin is usually dissolved in chemicals, but these mirror/ bowl-bases are coated using a different technique:
Lac-turnery
This craft originates in India, it carries a rich tradition that goes back centuries. The resin is heated, dyed with organic pigments and formed into sticks. The lac stick is then pressed against the wooden base while it's still turning on the lathe, and melts from friction.
Craft revival
The objects are made in collaboration with a mostly female Fairtrade cooperative in southern India.
To many people, words like “Fairtrade”, “craft” and “female artisan” are equivalent with cheap, crudely
made gift-shop objects.
The goal of this project is to change these preconceptions, and to raise the status of heritage craft by treating it as something worth our time, effort, attention and money.
Exhibited at Galleri Slätten 2021
And Southern Sweden Design Days 2021.
Lac-turnery is traditionally used for toy-making. The artisans are skilled in making rounded edges and soft shapes.
The bug-resin is melted, dyed, and formed into sticks.
All pigments are organic: indigo, madder root and turmeric.
The lacquer hardens in seconds.
Photo: Siri Skillgate
The bases are made using off-cuts from the toy production, hence the leveled shape.
Green from indigo and turmeric. Photo by André Bern.
Madder root red.
Dark blue-black from indigo.
This is the all-Swedish produced version of the Kerria Lacca mirror. The base is made from ash-wood and coated with a hard wax oil.
The first seed to the Kerria Lacca project.
Master Thesis in 2018
The very first version of the project came about in 2018, during Ebba’s Masters in Industrial Design, carried out at Industree Craft Foundation in Bangalore.
“Industree tackles the root causes of poverty by creating ownership based, organised creative manufacturing ecosystems for micro-entrepreneurs.”
Ebba’s work explored different ways that NGOs could work as an intermediator to establish successful designer-artisan collabs, and how designers can contribute to fair work in production.
The ultimate goal was to make it easier for designers to take responsibility over production.
Presented at Cumulus Conference: Diffused Design Transitions in Wuxi, China, 2018.