What is the production process of a blue and white porcelain bowl that is completely handmade according to ancient methods? Speaking of which, this is really a complicated and interesting story.
It is really a magical thing to transform a piece of mud into exquisite porcelain. Generally speaking, making a piece of porcelain using the ancient method requires seventy-two processes. Crushing clay, drawing blanks, printing blanks, sharpening blanks, painting blanks, applying glazes, and opening kilns... The old craftsmen in Jingdezhen only engage in one job in their lives. They spend their whole lives pulling blanks, and they spend their whole lives firing kilns! Every step of the technique is meticulous. It requires years of experience accumulation. It is the crystallization of their wisdom and sweat
In the Jingdezhen Ancient Kiln Folklore Expo Area, there is a workshop that uses ancient traditional techniques to make porcelain. Walking into the workshop, rows of unfired porcelain blanks look like girls without makeup, elegant and pure. There are many old craftsmen gathered in the workshop, after their work, the beauties without makeup will put on gorgeous glaze clothes and bloom with amazing beauty. Let us follow the inheritors of these intangible cultural heritages and explore the secrets behind the production of this porcelain.
Old man Wang Yansheng is a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage. He started his apprenticeship at the age of 9 and is good at drawing round ware. He is 77 years old this year. Drawing is the prototype production of utensils. The master who made the blanks used a wooden stick to stir the wheel plate to make it rotate rapidly. As the shape of his hands continued to change, the mud on the wheel plate also kept changing. Bowls and gourds came out quickly, like magic. This year, Master Chen also competed with a Japanese pottery master and won with a round gourd bottle. He also specially made a gourd for us to see, and then broke it into one section. It was all hollow in the middle. It was really magical.
Old man Wang Huizheng is the representative inheritor of municipal intangible cultural heritage. Starting at 10 years oldApprentice, good at printing blanks for round ware. He is 75 years old this year. The size of the billet will be somewhat different after it comes out. Leave it in a cool place until it is semi-dry, then put the rough body on the mold and shape it by pressing and patting with your hands to make the body even and even. In this way, the specifications of each porcelain body will be very standard. This is the printing process.
Mr. Chen Shengfa is a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage. He started his apprenticeship at the age of 11 and was good at sharpening round tools. I am 83 years old this year! Can you tell? To make a porcelain, remove the thick and uneven excess parts so that the thickness of the porcelain body is appropriate and consistent on the inside and outside. The knife in Master Chens hand is called a sharp knife. It takes 4 knives to repair a bowl. Each knife has 3 steps. Each step requires at least 3 years of learning, 4X3X3=36 years! This technique takes half a lifetime to learn and then get rid of.
This old master forgot his name. . . This process is called billet digging. Generally, a little mud will be left at the bottom when the billet is started.Bazi is convenient to hold and do work. But as everyone knows when using bowls, the bottom should be hollowed out to facilitate the deposit of the bottom. This master specializes in repairing this part of the mud dam.
Ms. Wang Shenfang is a representative inheritor of provincial material cultural heritage. She started her apprenticeship at the age of 18 and is good at painting. 51 years old this year. Using a paintbrush dipped in blue and white material to paint on the blank is the most beautiful part of the blue and white porcelain process. Her unique skill is to spin the bowl with one hand and draw with the other, without any pause in between, drawing a circle with one stroke.
Zhan Xiangsheng is the representative inheritor of municipal intangible cultural heritage. Started his apprenticeship at the age of 15 and is good at making round ware. He is 74 years old this year. The brake blank is glazed. Apply a layer of vitreous glaze on the outside of the blank so that the surface of the porcelain will be smooth after firing. With a steady hand, the old gentleman put a bowl into the glaze liquid. The outside of the bowl was just coated with a layer of glaze, but the inside of the bowl wasNot a drop of it was stained, it was really amazing.
They all worked calmly and calmly, and those magical actions were as simple as drinking a glass of water for them. These hands covered with mud are priceless treasures that can turn stones into gold. And when we learned that their real ages are generally between 60 and 80 years old, we felt really envious. How is it possible? It doesn’t look like it at all! Is it possible that doing this kind of manual work can make people have a stable and calm mind, making people healthy and long-lived, and staying young forever?
There are no young people to be seen in the workshop. We lament that in this era of quick success and quick success, no young people are willing to inherit it and face the risk of being lost. Can we only appreciate the wisdom and exquisite skills of the older generations through the exquisite porcelain in museums? Fortunately, the commentator said that to get the title of inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage, in addition to being highly skilled, In addition, there must be some apprentices to pass on the craftsmanship. In fact, the Ancient Kiln Folklore Expo Area brings together these folk masters, which has made a considerable contribution to the inheritance of culture.
After pure hand-making and hand-painting, it is natural to use the ancient firewood kiln to fire it. The town kiln is not a modern replica, but a real ancient firewood kiln left over from the Qianlong period, and is a key national cultural relic protection unit. The kiln is lit twice a year, and all processes are carried out according to ancient methods and based on the experience of the kiln workers. The fuel is masson pine wood. The finished product after being fired in the kiln has rosin seeping into the porcelain blank, giving it an elegant color and a warm feel. It is unmatched by modern gas kilns.
In 1728, the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, it was the time when Tang Ying, the governor of pottery in the Qing Dynasty, came to Jingdezhen to take office. The arrival of Tang Ying ushered in the heyday of Jingdezhen Royal Kiln. Today, the ancient kiln folklore exhibition area rekindled the kiln fire that had been extinguished for 14 years, and named these new blue and white porcelains after "Zhen Kiln 1728". In my eyes, it is no longer just a bowl, but contains thousands of years of historical heritage. It is amazingly beautiful.
