Many of the craftsmanship of Ding kiln are actually related to carving.
Therefore, flower picking is also called carving.
This refers to the method of decorating the green tire by removing the space other than the decorative pattern, commonly known as floor-reducing flowers.
Decoration is actually a variant of relief carving technique.
As for carving, Chen Wenzhe's skills are already very high, so he also pays special attention to this aspect of technology.
Because compared to other crafts, it was much more convenient and faster for him to learn the crafts of carving, engraving, and scratching.
For example, there are many ways to cut flowers, and he can learn them all by looking at the technical points.
As long as the carving skills are good, how difficult is it to carve out the decorative clay, carving, glaze, etc.?
Even if it is to carve a large area, there is no difficulty, and there is no problem even if it is to carve a small area.
However, not all porcelain can be decorated with engraving.
You must know that the flower cutting method originated from Cizhou kiln, Xixia kiln, etc. in the north, and is rarely used in porcelain kilns in the south.
In the northern kiln carving, patterns are carved on the clay or glaze.
After firing, the carved part is exposed, which contrasts with the glaze and pattern. This is the method of exposing the tire by carving.
The Longquan kiln is slightly different. On the semi-dry porcelain blank, the excess "ground" other than the pattern is removed, and then it is glazed and fired. After firing, the pattern is all under the glaze.
At each kiln entrance and in each historical period, the performance and techniques of the flower cutting process are different.
For example, the Longquan kiln engraving method can be called the engraving and glaze coating method.
The carved patterns can be protected under the glaze for a long time.
It can not only show the pattern level, but also show the beauty of glaze color.
In addition, the flower cutting method was mainly popular in the Yuan Dynasty, but also in the Ming Dynasty.
For example, the "ground" of the plum vase with entangled branches and peony patterns in the Longquan kiln of the Yuan Dynasty was picked out.
Engraving is sometimes easily mistaken for stamping, but there is actually a difference.
As everyone knows, mold printing is easy to make, fast to make, and can produce porcelain in large quantities.
However, this is just like printing. Things produced in large quantities must have very low value.
Often works in hand, or works with more complex craftsmanship, are more expensive because the quantity is definitely smaller.
For example, porcelain with white ground and black porcelain is a high-end product among porcelain porcelain. This kind of porcelain was mostly seen from the late Northern Song Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty.
The method is to first apply white cosmetic soil on the porcelain body, then apply black cosmetic soil after it dries slightly, carve out the pattern, and then remove the black cosmetic soil outside the pattern to reveal the white cosmetic soil.
The key to this process is not to damage the underlying white cosmetic clay, which requires craftsmen to have high skills.
It is easy to operate only when the humidity of the porcelain base and the clay is just right, half dry and half moist. Finally, it is covered with transparent glaze and fired in the kiln.
The white ground and black flower decoration is the most complex and difficult type of flower decoration.
The black ground white pattern is to remove the black color material in the pattern in reverse, and the pattern is white.
There are also deep carvings in Nanhe Dangyangyu, Pacun and other kilns, which not only remove the makeup soil, but also remove a layer of carvings due to the depth of the knife. The three-dimensional effect is very strong, and it is like a relief on porcelain.
As long as you look at the craftsmanship of such porcelain, you will know that ordinary craftsmen will never be able to make it well.
Therefore, as long as this kind of porcelain is produced, it will be of high quality.
If it can be passed down to this day, it must be a treasure.
Porcelain of this level must be judged by its craftsmanship.
Good craftsmanship means high craftsmanship value.
Sometimes the age is not important, especially for some high-end ancient porcelain. If the craftsmanship is not good, even if it has thousands of years of history, it will not have much value.
Of course, it would be better if some special glaze colors could be applied on top of these top-notch craftsmanship.
For example, green glaze engraving, this process is the same as white glaze engraving, except that it needs to be fired at high temperature first, then green glaze is applied, and then fired again at low temperature.
The white glaze and brown colored flowers are the products of Ding kiln during the Song and Jin Dynasties.
There is a plum vase in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of China. At first glance, it looks like a flower vase, but it is actually an improved variety.
The smart craftsman did not remove the makeup soil outside the outline of the pattern as usual, but applied brown color on the white makeup soil inside the pattern.
This is a simplification and improvement of the carving process. Although there is no carving, there is a visual effect of carving.
Compared with those in the Central Plains, the carved porcelain of the Liao Dynasty had less exposed bodies, and the body color was gray-white or khaki.
The contrast between light and dark colors is not strong, and it seems to be pursuing a peaceful and soft style.
The representative work of the carved porcelain of the Liao Dynasty is the white-glazed carved jade pot spring vase of the Liao Dynasty.
This is produced at a kiln in northern Shanxi. The shape of the vessel is a slender mouth, a long and narrow neck, slippery shoulders and a round belly.
The shape is beautiful, with dense patterns covering the whole body.
Six groups of string patterns clearly divide the pattern into five layers.
The first layer is Ruyi cloud head pattern;
The second layer is a phoenix pattern rarely seen on porcelain of the Liao Dynasty. The phoenix is flying from the side, with a large phoenix head, big eyes and hooked beak, and five long quills and tails that are simple and neat;
The third layer is the most common curly grass pattern on porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties;
The fourth layer is filled with lotus water ripples, the wind blows the water and the flowers sway, full of interest;
The fifth layer is the lotus petal pattern. This bottle is a combination of rough and delicate, gorgeous and simple.
This kind of porcelain, this kind of craftsmanship, even if the bottle has obvious cracks and has been repaired, the value is still very high.
For this level of porcelain, as the times change, the technology is regressing.
For example, during the Liao-Jin Dynasty, only three layers of decoration remained on the black-glazed jade pot spring vase.
The general theme decoration is also phoenix, but due to the flowing glaze, the pattern is a little blurry.
This level is no longer comparable to that of the Liao Dynasty.
Craftsmen, in their prime, will definitely be able to make better porcelain. After all, they can settle down to study and work.
In the final analysis, the entire carving process, no matter how it is carved, belongs to the sculpture system.
This kind of craft cannot be learned well without a stable environment.
The engraving, scratching, printing and ticking techniques on these ancient porcelains are all playful carvings.
It can be said that as long as you have good carving skills, you can quickly master these four techniques.
Judging from the four porcelain art names of engraving, scratching, printing, and carving, we know that they are all related to carving, but they are different.
So what are the differences between them? If you carefully analyze the differences between these "quadruplets", you will know why they are divided into four crafts instead of being unified into sculpture.
Engraving is to carve patterns on the surface of the object body that is not yet dry, using tools such as iron knives, and then applying glaze or directly firing it in a kiln.
The engraving knife techniques are divided into "single-entry side knife method" and "double-entry front knife method". The former has a deep blade on one side and a shallow side with an inclined cross-section;
The blade of the latter needs to be vertical on both sides.
The carved lines can be wide or narrow, and the turns can be varied, creating an artistic effect of both lines and surfaces.
It is carved directly on the blank with a knife, which has a strong sense of integrity and a good decorative effect.
Carving is one of the ceramic decoration techniques, everyone knows this.
This is one of the basic skills of making porcelain, but not many can truly master it.