How Lacquer Becomes Light
Forty coats, not forty days
Each layer of thitsi is applied, dried in the dark, and hand-sanded before the next — the full cycle takes a year and a half.
The dark ground is the design
Artists cut decoration into the cured lacquer surface itself — the umber undercoat is the canvas, not the frame.
Gold follows the knife, never the eye
Incised grooves are filled with shwe gold leaf by hand, line by line — no stencil, no transfer, no shortcut.
Cinnabar is the only permitted red
Every red accent comes from mercury sulfide pigment ground to a specific fineness — the same recipe since the Bagan period.