介绍:
Stepping into the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City of Beijing, visitors will be treated to an extravagant display of art. Among all those dazzling exhibits, a whole host of cloisonné vases, burners and jewelries are probably most eye-catching. Taking a closer look, you could find lifelike birds spreading wings, flaming flowers vying for beauty and mysterious dragons hidden in the clouds.
Since the majority of these cloisonné objects use blue as their dominant hue, they have been given the Chinese name "Jing Tai Lan", literally meaning "Jingtai Blue".
Yu Huaiping, a tourist guide at Beijing Enamel Factory, explains.
"Jing Tai Lan is named after the Emperor Jing Tai of the Ming Dynasty, who encouraged the prevalence of cloisonné during his reign. It is a technique that allows craftsmen to paint, solder filigree and polish on cooper molds. "
Arguably the most comprehensive traditional technique in China, cloisonné combines high-level of craftsmanship in bronze, drawing, painting and sculpting. In ancient times, there were at least seven steps to finishing one piece of cloisonné artifact by hand, including hammering cooper mold and gliding. Now, with the help of mechanization that facilitates the mold manufacture, the process has already been minimized to the defining four steps.
Walking into the manufacturing shop of Beijing Enamel Factory, a primary base to promote the inheritance of this ancient craft, workers are concentrating on the first step of the decoration: filigree soldering.
Yan Kun has been working in the business for more than thirty years. For her, the process is similar with embroidery or line drawing.
"Filigree soldering means that you need to use the blueprint as reference, then break out the metal bits or wires of the same size from a piece of cooper. Then, you are going to weld these wires on the surface of your mold. What you need are scissors, pliers, tweezers and a plate of bletilla."
Using bletilla, which is a kind of vegetable glue, wires and bits could be attached to the surface to form patterns. But according to Yan, artificers still need to attach welding flux and fire up the object to high temperature to fix the pattern. Usually, filigreeing a one-meter-tall vase will take two to three months.
But how to transform the dull-looking moulds into chromatic artifacts?
Filling enamel must be precise during the process.
Using mineral powders as pigments, workers add water and apply the color onto the cloisonné with extreme care. In order to maintain the consistency of the tone, every object is colored by one person alone.
Luo Shuxiang, a specialist in filling enamel, explains.
"For example, there are nine different colors need to be shown in one flower. So we need to mix the tones from the brightest to the darkest to bring up the presence and brilliance of the floral pattern. Since there are only some base-colored powders, we have to mix them to adjust the hue. "
Then the cloisonné is sent to the furnace to be fired and hardened.
Peeking from the entry of the furnace, visitors could find mineral powders being melted and coagulated. When the mold cools, a layer of smooth and bright-colored enamel appears. However, since the glaze will dwindle in size due to the heat, workers have to fill and fire the cloisonné repeatedly until a satisfactory thickness is achieved.
Working in the factory for 37 years, Le Yongke explains that the trick of enamelling depends on one's experience.
"Some materials are pretty solid while some are softer. Sometimes we will fire those hard materials for two minutes. As for something pliable, we will fire them for only one minute. "
As for the next step, since the surface is not even, artisans are required to polish the cloisonné to expose those areas attached with cooper wires.
Stepping into the polishing department, you could find a narrow workshop isolated by glass and wood shelves. Six grinders line up with covers, which prevent the spatter of water and ballast. Since lots of water has been used for lubrication, the whole workshop is shrouded by vapor.
Ren Lianyin, an artisan deft at polishing cloisonné, elaborates.
"The first step is to apply the emery paper to the areas attached with cooper wires. Then we cover it with a layer of transparent glaze and leave the object to be fired. Afterwards, we polish the object with emery and charcoal."
Then, after gilding the surface to keep it from rusting, a fine piece of cloisonné enamel is finally produced.
Introduced from the Islamic world to China centries ago, Chinese cloisonné has experienced its ups and downs throughout the history. In 2006, it was listed as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage and gradually regained its popularity.
Here is Wang Jianzhang, office director of Beijing Enamel Factory.
"Our products have sold well in recent years. Last year, our sales reached 500 million yuan or 80 milliion US dollars and the annual sales of exports was over 2 million yuan or 322 thousand US dollars."
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