Thursday, March 19, 2009

What is shellac made of?


Search
: shellac

Why: A guy on "Ace of Cakes" just said it's made of bugs.

Answer: Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug (below) to make a cocoon. It is processed and sold as dry flakes, which are then dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac. It is used as a brushed on colorant, wood stain, and food glaze - like on candy such as Skittles.


Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: It takes about 100,000 lac bugs to make 1 lb. of shellac flakes. Tree branches covered by thousands of the bugs are harvested as sticklac. The branches are crushed and cleaned, leaving a product used as violin varnish known as seedlac.

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