Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c23.6

c23.6

The Mātale work is called *niyapoten veḍa* or finger-nail work; this name is given because the work is done chiefly with the finger or thumb nail, and no lathe is employed. The lac pigments are prepared as follows: the freshly collected twigs bearing the lac insects are dried in the sun; the resin is then removed, pounded, and winnowed or sifted. The crushed lac is enclosed in narrow bolster-shaped bags of thin cloth; the bags are heated over charcoal fires and twisted till the melted lac oozes through the cloth. The lac is scraped off; a part of it is next softened over a fire and attached to the point of a small stick, and then again warmed and a second stick attached. The softened lac is then drawn out between the two sticks, worked about, doubled up, and redrawn many times until it assumes the form of a long stout ribbon of glistening fibrous lac of a bright golden brown colour. The pigments are now mixed into the lac by softening it and pounding the coloured powders into it. The four colours used are red, yellow, green and black; of these the red is vermilion (*sādiliṅgam*); the yellow, orpiment (*hiriyal*); the green is yellow with the addition of “dhobies’ blue,” formerly *‘panil’* (indigo); and the black is prepared in the same way as the black used in painting.