What is Cinnabar?

Cinnabar, also known as Chinese Lacquer, is a famous Chinese handicraft. Traditionally, cinnabar items were created by painting multiple layers of lacquer onto an item, letting the item dry between each coat, and then carving the resulting layers of lacquer into beautiful patterns. Cinnabar gets its name from the toxic red mineral cinnabar (mercury sulfide) that was once used to give the distinctive red color to the lacquer used in the process. Today, cinnabar jewelry is formed from a dyed red resin that contains no harmful cinnabar. However, the look is largely the same. In fact, not all cinnabar is even red! Pure red cinnabar items are very popular, as are items which have both red and black cinnabar. However, the less common all black cinnabar is also available and is quite stunning.

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