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cinnabar - one man's poison is a another taoist's gold...
Cinnabar ore is the largest natural source of the element mercury , and the pigment vermillion .
Spain and Italy are home to the richest deposits of cinnabar ore.
Mercury's chemical symbol, Hg , comes from the Greek hydrargyrum meaning "liquid silver."
Sap from the lac tree, a conifer cultivated in central and south China, is also used in the creation of Japanese and Chinese laquerware.
A finished cinnabar piece goes through many steps involving multiple layers of laquer, then drying, carving, and waxing to a glossy finish.
 an ore and a sap
With its cinnamon to scarlet red color, the mineral cinnabar adds a unique color to the mineral color palette.

cinnabar ore, terlingua, texas

Cinnabar, a common ore of mercury, is a naturally occurring mercuric sulphide and red crystalline solid. Usually found near hot springs or near where there has been volcanic activity, cinnabar is formed in epithermal veins at low temperature.
The mineral cinnabar is no longer used in jewelry because of its association with mercury, a poisonous substance that shouldn't be worn next to the skin.

manufactured cinnabar

The cinnabar from which jewelry is now made is actually wood covered by many layers of lacquer that has been stained with mercuric sulfide. The lacquer itself is made from the sap of a tree, the lac.
Each layer of lacquer takes several days to cure and harden before the next layer can be applied. While the final layer is still soft, it is pressed with an image or hand-carved. A piece of cinnabar formed in this manner takes approximately two months to produce.