Hard BodiesSince the Neolithic era, artisans in East Asia have coated bowls, cups, boxes, baskets, and other utilitarian objects with a natural polymer distilled from the sap of the Rhus verniciflua, known as the lacquer tree. Lacquerware was, and still is, prized for its sheena lustrous beauty that artists learned to accentuate over the centuries with inlaid gold, silver, mother of pearl, and other precious materials. This tradition has undergone challenges