Chapter 1,794 Keeping the craft secret, confusing the fake with the real one
As a Qilu native, Chen Wenzhe naturally knew that in addition to Nanhe's imitation bronzes being very good, there were also people in Qilu who were doing this, and they were doing very well.
Chen Wenzhe also knew that the unique "vertical box sand casting method" was used to cast antique bronzes in Weicheng.
This method requires major processes such as mold making, sand casting, trimming, welding, and coloring.
Mold making includes three processes of making clay samples, plaster samples and lead molds;
Sand casting, the process is complex and the materials used are particular;
To trim and arrange the castings, use methods such as withering, chiseling, filing, grinding, and polishing to make the patterns clear and bright, and the yin and yang orderly;
Coloring, according to the degree and color of the original rust, apply corresponding corrosives and colors to make the image realistic.
The surface treatment of Weicheng antique bronze wares includes unique techniques such as unearthed rust, domestic rust, antique ink, mercury dipping, gold and silver wire inlay and gilding.
His representative works include "Changxin Palace Lantern", "Maogong Ding", etc.
There are two types of antique copper casting techniques in Weicheng, imitation and reproduction.
In the 1980s, Yanjian Village ended its research on the production technology of antique bronze wares, and gradually formed a scale in the 1990s.
It must be for others to watch, not for you, but if I watch it, I can learn the essence.
The antique bronzes in Yanjian Village use the traditional lost wax method.
As for the production process of antique bronze wares, you need to use several Chinese medicines for a few times to achieve the rust color.
The shovel is semi-cylindrical, with a long wooden handle at the bottom, and is hand-held to drill up to a depth of more than 20 meters. It is sharp for drilling, has less soil, is easy to excavate, and is easy to use.
Weicheng antique bronze wares have strong concave and convex patterns and are completed through multiple processes, generally requiring five steps.
Before the wax mold melts and flows out, the molten copper liquid is poured into the plaster mold.
At the very least, if I can get hold of some very unknown treasures, then imitation will be the only way.
First, first make a bronze mold out of clay and make it into a plaster mold or a tin mold.
Before liberation, Yangluo was designated as a national key construction city. Luoyang is an ancient city with few above-ground ruins and ancient tombs. The exploration shovel produced by Yanglin Iron Industry Co., Ltd. played a huge role in the drilling work.
At this time, I was also sighing that the people outside were really professional, because even some workers with a good reputation could not make antique bronzes enough to "make them look fake."
Here, citizens can also appreciate the "intangible cultural heritage" project of Yanyunjian bronze ware production.
That time Chen Wenzhe saw with his own eyes how others imitated bronze wares, because I followed a tour guide to a basement.
2. Use yellow quicksand to dig out the device.
And what's next to those cultural relics? It's actually a Yangluo shovel.
The newly-baked bronze is just a blank and must go through processes such as grinding, polishing, waxing, and distressing before it can become a finished product.
Eighth, use liquid copper to reverse cast to make semi-finished copper parts.
Antique bronzeware looks bad, but the key lies in making it look old.
That was too bad for Chen Wenzhe.
Those "freshly baked" bronzes bear very little resemblance to the unearthed cultural relics.
As early as the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Yanjian Village area was listed as a treasure place for sacrifices by the royal family, and it was also the place where bronze sacrificial vessels were fired.
Your kind of exploration shovel discovered more than a thousand ancient tombs in Luoyang, and then spread it to the whole country, and even spread to the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and other Asian countries.
The aging process is the most confidential process in each bronze factory.
Seventh, use traditional Chinese medicine to react with the copper parts to form patina, and then undergo preliminary manual processing.
After a few processes, each piece of antique bronze is "called out" by artists from the dust of history.
Outside, Chen Wenzhe could not watch the making of bronzes live.
At this time, in the underground room, workers were pouring melted wax oil into the mold of a bronze tripod to make wax molds.
I don’t even have a museum built by me. I must rely solely on me to find real antiques, so I can get a lot less?
Arriving at the museum outside the village, Chen Wenzhe found that it was really ordinary.
Now Xie Ronghui sees the antique bronzes on display in the museum, and they all look like unearthed cultural relics.
However, few people know that the village has a history of making bronzes for more than 3,000 years.
The requirements for imitation are relatively simple, but the requirements for reproduction are higher. The characteristics and expression of the original must be exactly the same down to a spot.
Chen Wenzhe also thought that one day, my skills would be able to be small and weak.
It cannot even be said that the Yanyunjian Bronze Crafts Museum over there in Yangluo is very average.
Today, antique bronze factories, shops and markets can be seen everywhere in Yanjian Village.
Some local museums also go out to customize replicas and display them as substitutes for cultural relics.
The bronze handicrafts produced in the village are sold all over the country, making the village the "No. 1 Antique Bronze Village" for people near and far.
Those molds were also made by workers according to some ancient bronzes.
Yes, that technology, or that ancient skill, has become an "intangible cultural heritage" of the province.
7. Grinding, carving, and welding.
Cultural relics such as the bronze Jia (jia) and bronze jue from the Xia Dynasty, the "Zishen Fu Ji" bronze tripod and the bronze chariot from the Shang Dynasty have been unearthed in the distance.
In ancient times, bronze casting techniques were mainly divided into two types: the combined mold method and the lost wax method.
The entire production process is manual and requires 16 steps to complete.
Replicated bronze wares are mostly used for museum exhibitions, while imitation bronze wares are mainly used for collections, art displays, etc.
Now everyone knows that Yanjian Village is an ancient village famous throughout the country for its production of antique bronzes.
I'm sure I can still learn something after watching it like that, but this is really a waste of time.
Due to the long production cycle of bronze ware, which usually takes half a month to 20 days, special people may only be able to see one of the processes when they come to visit.
Before it cools down, the plaster shell inside is removed, and each beautifully decorated bronze vessel is born.
As for the imitation techniques, it is natural to learn them hard. After all, we haven't come to Yangluo yet, so why can't we give up the imitation techniques there?
Next, the broken wax mold is covered with thick plaster, and then sent to a low earthen furnace for heating and grilling.
Everything needs to be made professionally, and as long as it is professional, it can only be made small and weak. Because all the bronzes on display in the museum were made by the craftsmen themselves.
That kind of shovel there is called Yanglin Tan Shovel. After liberation, there were no seven shovels in Jie Rong that produced shovels. The quality of the ones produced by Yanglin was the worst, so it was called "Yanglin Tan Shovel".
In 2011, the Yanyunjian bronze making technique became an intangible cultural heritage of Nan Ha Province.
Therefore, the museum displays each process of bronze ware production in the exhibition hall on the second floor, so that all visitors can understand the production of bronze ware through them.
Later, I said that the specialties there were not Tang Bacai, antique bronzes, but in fact they were not Yangluo shovels.
Of course, the Weicheng side is nothing, after all, the Runan River side has no reputation, and they really haven't acted small or weak yet.