The Hollow

A jar of shellac on a maple workbench beside chisels and a brush

One Order, Four Times a Year

How the bulk program works now: no minimums, one price set by the weight of your order, and why I'd rather sell you fresh flake four times a year than...

One Order, Four Times a Year

How the bulk program works now: no minimums, one price set by the weight of your order, and why I'd rather sell you fresh flake four times a year than...

Hemanta and Aruna Super Golden button lac on a pale board, Virginia maples in fall color behind

Super Golden: How the Finest Button Lac in the ...

Hemanta and Aruna — two harvests from one refining family, sieved finer, washed three times, pressed by hand over a wood fire, and guaranteed 100% shellac. How the Super Golden...

Super Golden: How the Finest Button Lac in the ...

Hemanta and Aruna — two harvests from one refining family, sieved finer, washed three times, pressed by hand over a wood fire, and guaranteed 100% shellac. How the Super Golden...

The Finishers Guild Gathering at Bespoke Finish, White Bear Township MN, September 2026

Out of My Depth, and Right at Home

Three days at the Finishers Guild Gathering: a room full of masters, a firehose of technique, and one old finish they all agreed on.

4 comments

Out of My Depth, and Right at Home

Three days at the Finishers Guild Gathering: a room full of masters, a firehose of technique, and one old finish they all agreed on.

4 comments
A sunburst-veneered tilt-top table restored by Ben Parry, Oxford, Pennsylvania

Witness Marks

On restoring things made long before you and built to outlast you — a morning with Ben Parry, who restores old rooms and old furniture the old way.

1 comment

Witness Marks

On restoring things made long before you and built to outlast you — a morning with Ben Parry, who restores old rooms and old furniture the old way.

1 comment
One-pound bags of Chestnut Hollow Aruna Super Golden button shellac, first vintage 2026

How to Read a Bag of Shellac

Grades, forms, harvests and cuts — what every word on the label means, and which one to reach for.

1 comment

How to Read a Bag of Shellac

Grades, forms, harvests and cuts — what every word on the label means, and which one to reach for.

1 comment
A Channapatna artisan coloring a turned toy with a stick of lac at the lathe. Photo: Kartik Mistry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A History of Lac Turning

The paper trail behind coloring wood with a stick of lac on the lathe runs from a traveler’s account of 1596 to a Victorian dictionary to the workshops still doing...

A History of Lac Turning

The paper trail behind coloring wood with a stick of lac on the lathe runs from a traveler’s account of 1596 to a Victorian dictionary to the workshops still doing...