Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c23.10

c23.10

Now to apply a narrow band of coloured lac to the stick, the stick is warmed gently, while kept continually turning by a small boy who squats behind the operator, and one end of the string of lac is attached to the stick by pressure, and the rest likewise as the stick turns; the thread of lac is nipped off by the thumb nail when a revolution is complete. The stick is then warmed again and smoothed with the leaf. For more complex patterns (and some are very elaborate) string lac is applied in just the same way, and nipped off with the nail; dots are thus formed by applying the end of the thread of lac and cutting off a tiny piece with the nail; such dots are consequently square or diamond-shaped.