Chapter 1,109 Modern craftsmanship that far exceeds that of the ancients
For Chen Wenzhe, except for the troublesome firing of Chinese red porcelain, there is no other problem.
He can handle everything like craftsmanship, hair color, vessel shape, glaze, clay, etc. perfectly.
However, even if his craftsmanship is superb, usually, only one finished product can be produced out of three pieces of this kind of Chinese red porcelain.
Among large-scale finished products, only one finished product can be produced out of more than ten porcelain blanks. This is the so-called "nine out of ten kilns will fail."
The almost harsh manufacturing process and extremely low yield rate further highlight the scarcity and preciousness of Chinese red porcelain.
Having learned how to make Chinese red porcelain through the Sui Marquis Pearl, Chen Wenzhe felt a little emotional.
No wonder the ancients couldn't make a bright red glaze color, mainly because the process was too troublesome and too random.
Even if he gains a lot of experience through inheritance, there is no guarantee of success.
After all, the inheritance he received was also discovered by some modern masters. Even they couldn't guarantee the success rate. How could Chen Wenzhe, a disciple who passed on the inheritance, guarantee the success rate?
Although the firing efficiency is not high, if you make a few more pieces, you will still get a lot more.
Besides, Chen Wenzhe is already standing on the basis of his predecessors, and his firing rate should be higher than many others.
So Chen Wenzhe began to study the production method of Chinese red porcelain more seriously. After he was completely familiar with it and studied it thoroughly, he really started to do it.
At this time, he began to produce red porcelain in different categories according to its use, daily gift porcelain and ornamental gift porcelain.
Daily gift porcelain refers to ceramic products such as utensils that people mainly use in their daily lives.
Such as bowls, cups, plates, pens, etc.
It is not difficult to make these utensils. What is difficult is the glaze color and craftsmanship.
Because compared to many top famous kilns in ancient times, or official kiln wares produced by royal kilns, the modern porcelain produced for national ceremonials - Chinese red porcelain, is much better.
There is no doubt about this. In every aspect, modern people are better than ancient craftsmen.
It can even be said that from the beginning of the selection of porcelain clay, grinding, aging, and tire making, to the selection of glaze, painting, glazing, and firing, all processes and every process must be better than ancient craftsmanship and must be more refined.
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This may surprise many people.
How can modern handicrafts be better than antiques? In fact, these are two different concepts.
Don’t think that the level of craftsmanship in modern handicrafts is lower than in ancient times.
In fact, the opposite is true. When you see those statements that "modern technology cannot be copied" in the future, remember, this does not mean that modern technology cannot reach the level of quality of that cultural relic, but that it cannot be copied 100% according to the original process.
Produces exactly the same effect.
This may be due to various reasons such as the loss of old techniques or different raw materials.
But there is absolutely no such thing as saying that modern technology cannot be done as well as our ancestors.
The world is progressing. No matter how high the level of ancient craftsmanship is, it is still at the level of a backward era.
In many crafts, modern people not only surpass ancient times, but also far surpass them.
It's just that some ancient methods have been lost, and we don't know how the ancients did it.
Finally, let me talk about the loss of the legend. Most people always feel it is a pity when they hear it.
Thinking about it conversely, most of the lost craftsmanship has probably been replaced by better technology because of this technical method.
For example, the clay mold method for bronze casting can now use plaster or the lost wax method, which is much better.
Needless to say, smelting copper and iron also applies to making porcelain.
The raw materials that modern people can use are definitely not comparable to those of the ancients.
There is also craftsmanship. The ancient craftsmanship that modern people can come into contact with and understand are definitely not comparable to the craftsmen who were limited by the technology, culture and other fields at that time.
Therefore, in many cases, do not overly deify the ancients.
It doesn’t mean that the ancient people’s technical level was not good and the handicrafts they produced were not good.
Rather, ancient craftsmanship can be regarded as a craft at most in modern times, but it is by no means insurmountable.
The level of modern craftsmanship has already surpassed that of ancient people by an unknown amount.
For example, if you use a modern copper factory to make a sword from copper, it would have been a magical weapon in the Bronze Age.
A modern kitchen knife of better quality would be the same as it was in the Iron Age.
Besides, ceramic firing technology, today’s technology is not much better than that in ancient times.
Song porcelain and Ming porcelain are valuable because they are old enough, not because they are more beautiful than today's porcelain.
Just like Stradivarius in the violin world, none of the current instruments are as good as it.
But modern violin makers know better, because they all know that if the current instruments are kept for three hundred years, each one will be as good as a Stirling instrument.
The value of the Sturt's instrument lies in the fact that it is old and rare, and that it took three to four hundred years to completely dry and solidify.
Or, coming back to bronzes, why do such antiques never fetch high prices?
In fact, not only is the sale and purchase of bronzes prohibited in the country, there is another important reason: the imitations made by modern people are too powerful and difficult to distinguish.
In other words, there are so many fake things that people can’t recognize them.
So, if I don’t recognize it, can I just not buy it?
After all, Chen Wenzhe made few bronzes, so he didn't care much.
Of course, if he now wants to make bronze ware, the Sui Marquis Pearl can provide him with more learning materials.
However, making bronze is too troublesome, so Chen Wenzhe still prefers porcelain.
He still knows more about ceramics and is more familiar with it.
First of all, ceramics is a relatively local industry.
If you have a rough understanding of the distribution of the modern ceramic industry, you will find that the ceramic products in many places are very similar, and there are some differences that cannot be ignored.
In the ceramic industry, there are only a few molding processes, so the factors that cause these differences are basically temperature, atmosphere, and the difference in mineral composition in the raw materials.
As for the ceramics passed down from ancient times, the two factors of temperature and atmosphere can be solved through a large number of experiments, so I won’t go into details, but the mineral composition is really difficult to solve.
After all, ceramic raw materials are obtained by weathering and aging of ores.
Some ores are gone as soon as they are gone, which is really bad temper.
But having said that, just because it is not exactly the same as ancient ceramics does not mean that the quality is not as good as ancient ceramics.
Maybe when you go to a museum to look at ancient ceramics, you will think, "Ah, it's really beautiful."
But you have to understand that most of them are selected from thousands of official kilns.
If you look at the ceramics from ancient folk kilns, you will know that they are really not as exquisite as the ceramics we use now.
Many of the patterns on those antiques were simply painted randomly by the craftsmen.
As for modern, particularly high-end ceramics, go to the exhibitions of the big guys and you will know that they are really great and amazing.
In particular, some porcelain used in national ceremonies and used by national leaders are so luxurious that you can't even imagine.