Ottchil : Korean Traditional Lacquer

Chapter 1. About Ottchil
Defining Lacquer 14
Characteristics of Lacquer 16
Types of Lacquer 18
Types of Surface Material of Lacquer Crafts 22
History of Lacquer 28
Lacquer in China, Japan, Vietnam and Myanmar 36

Chapter 2. Tools and Material for Lacquering
Collecting Lacquer 44
Beginning Lacquer 48

Chapter 3. Applying Lacquer
Lacquering on Wood Base(Moksim) 56
Lacquering on Metal Base(Geumtae) 66
Lacquering on Pottery Base(Dotae) 70
Lacquering on Layered Hemp Cloth(Hyeopjeo) 74
Painting with Colored Lacquer(Chaehwa) 76

Chaper 4. Enjoying Lacquer
Wood Base Lacquering: Solidity and Beauty in Daily Life 82
Metal Base Lacquering: Adding Gloss to Shine 104
Pottery Base Lacquering: Fusing Together with Earth 112
Layered Cloth Base Lacquering: Feeling Free to Form 116
Hanji Base Lacquering: Giving a New Birth to Korean Paper 124
Leather Base Lacquering: Balancing between Toughness and Solidity 130
Lacquer Painting: Making Things Bloom 134

Appendix
List of Masters 144
Craft & Design Map 145
List of Plates 146
Bibliography 149
Collaborators 150
Index 151

Lacquer trees maintain a certain amount of sap internally and excrete it to protect itself when its bark is breached, which is referred to as ‘lacquer sap’.
To collect lacquer sap, the bark of living trees is removed, exposing the sap secreting organ, which is breached to encourage the sap to ooze out. Raw lacquer sap contains various substances such as urushiol, nitrogen, gum, water, etc. The ash colored milky sap has a bittersweet taste and oxidizes into a brown color. Prolonged oxidization hardens the surface into a dark brown colored cover that prevents further oxidization, which is why lacquer sap is described as having ‘hardening’ and ‘drying’ characteristics.
-from. 'Chapter 1. About Ottchil'

Lacquer sap is hand-collected from early June to late October from standing trees. The trees should be at least six years old; the best age for harvest is between eight to ten years. While Jichil(arborization: cutting off branches and collecting lacquer from them) and Hwachil(collecting lacquer by heating lacquer tree) techniques were mainly used in the past, ‘collecting lacquer and cutting off’, ‘collecting and curing’, ‘collecting from upper and below parts at the same time’ methods are the main collecting techniques used today.
-from. 'Chapter 2. Tools and Material for Lacquering'