This is stick lac, which is lac in a pure and unprocessed form.
Lac is the resinous secretion of the lac insect, which is cultivated much like beekeeping. Farmers infest trees with the lac insect eggs and harvest the lac resin from the trees, which is then called stick lac. When processed the stick lac can become a number of products such as shellac and lac dye.
When using it as a dye it is easier and cheaper to use lac extract, which is the highly concentrated form of the lac dye. We will sell lac extract in our shop as well. For those however who want to try the purest form of lac this is it. It is great for learning and experimenting.
To use stick lac as a dye it needs to crushed and then soaked in hot water until the dye releases.
Just as lac extract, stick lac gives a range of shades in the red, pink and purple range. It works well on both protein fibers such as silk and wool as well as cellulose fibers such as cotton.
Stick lac comes directly from the tree so it can still have some small tree branches in there as well as parts of insects. It does not contain alive insects.
Buyer is responsible for importing into their country. We don't know about all the different importing rules for each country.
