Shellac comes from shell and lac, a calque of French laque en écailles, 'lac in thin pieces', later gomme-laque, 'gum lac'. Most European languages (except Romance ones and Greek) have borrowed the word for the … See more

Shellac comes in many warm colours, ranging from a very light blonde ("platina") to a very dark brown ("garnet"), with many varieties of brown, … See more

The earliest written evidence of shellac goes back 3,000 years, but shellac is known to have been used earlier. According to the ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, an entire palace was built out of dried shellac.
Shellac was in rare … See more

• Blonde shellac flakes
• Dewaxed Bona (L) and Waxy #1 Orange (R) shellac flakes. The latter—orange shellac—is the traditional shellac used for decades to finish wooden wall … See more

Shellac is scraped from the bark of the trees where the female lac bug, Kerria lacca (order Hemiptera, family Kerriidae, also known as Laccifer lacca), secretes it to form a tunnel-like tube as it traverses the branches of the tree. Though these tunnels are … See more

Shellac is a natural bioadhesive polymer and is chemically similar to synthetic polymers. It can thus can be considered a natural form of plastic.
With a melting point of 75 °C (167 °F), it can be classed as a thermoplastic; used to bind See more

Historical
In the early- and mid-twentieth century, orange shellac was used as a one-product finish (combination stain and varnish-like topcoat) on decorative wood panelling used on walls and ceilings in homes, particularly in the … See more