Then, they learn the first three of the multiple decorative skills that cover color drawings, carvings, whetting, gems and relief inlaying. Usually, it takes more than three years to grasp each of the decorative skills. "That doesn't include the many years it takes to refine them."

Therefore, in the past, the grand and complex examples of gold lacquer inlaying were mostly borne of collaborations involving several artisans.

In recent years, Hou has focused his attention on jade and relief inlaying and thin gold foil design on lacquer.

The moment he stepped into the workshop at the Beijing Gold Lacquer Inlaid company in 2009, he realized the difficulty of turning the materials into delicate works of art.

"The workshop was smoldering hot in summer and freezing cold in winter," he recalls, adding that raw materials, like pig's blood, added to the smell in the room.

"You have to select, move and carve big stones by hand," Hou says. But the idea of delivering delicate lacquer work pulled him through the rough early years. "For the color paintings, you need a steady hand on the pen for every stroke to ensure the coloring spreads out well."

He had to chop plants into fibers as thin as 0.5 millimeters before putting them into the lacquer to enhance its texture. "It's a tricky job, because the fibers are fragile and you need to keep their length intact, which is often more than 20 centimeters."