Chapter 1888: Chrysanthemum Stone, go deeper layer by layer, be cautious
The discovery of Liuyang chrysanthemum stone has a history of more than 60 years.
According to the "Liuyang County Chronicle", in the fifth year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1740), Ouyang Xifan, a scholar in Yonghe Town, Liuyang, discovered an abnormality while building the Furong River embankment.
He was quarrying stones at the bottom of the river and accidentally discovered crystal white patterns in the stones.
This pattern is shaped like a chrysanthemum, comes in different sizes and poses, and is extremely beautiful.
As if he had found a treasure, he took it home and pondered it carefully.
Finally, according to the shape of the flower, it is carefully carved into a chrysanthemum stone inkstone.
This inkstone looked elegant, unique, handsome and cute. It was once said to be a rare object and was selected as a royal tribute.
Therefore, the chrysanthemum stone artwork has formed an inextricable relationship with Liuyang.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, chrysanthemum stone carvings were very popular and came in many varieties.
The flowers and bonsais are lifelike and lifelike, and the pots and cups are exquisite and elegant. They were unique specialties that people gave as gifts at that time.
Yang Changhou, a native of Liuyang, seized the business opportunity and opened the first chrysanthemum stone carving workshop.
There were more than 0 stone carving artists at that time, including Huang Jiaquan. Their main works included inkstones, pools, pen holders, pen holders, mirror screens, etc.
During this period, chrysanthemum stone carving techniques included line carving and flat carving, with practical stationery items as the main products.
It is worth mentioning that the colored chrysanthemum stone mine discovered later was the only colored chrysanthemum stone mine in the world discovered at the end of the last century.
Therefore, it is called a wonder in the world and a work of art!
The special thing about chrysanthemum stone carving is that you must first find out where the "flower" is, and then design the shape according to the structure of the "flower".
Veteran artists who have been working with stones all their lives can judge the position of the "flower" based on the tendons, texture, and hardness.
For them, looking for "flowers" is an exciting treasure hunt.
No one knows what form the "flower" will take hidden in the stone, waiting for people to discover and carve it.
"Flowers" also gather and disperse. When they gather, they are only a few inches apart, but when they disperse, they are separated by a few feet.
If you are lucky, you will encounter several overlapping "flowers" with scattered layers and natural tension.
A good piece of material can contain more than 10 flowers within a square foot.
This is such a marvelous workmanship that no carving is needed at all.
But more often than not, craftsmen need to conceive and design based on the position and layer of the "flower" after finding it.
If there are small flowers exposed at the corners of the stones, they are suitable for making inkstones;
The flowers are evenly distributed on the flat surface of the stone and can be used as a screen;
Small stones with small lively patterns are more suitable for making small works such as seals...
After the idea is completed, use a brush and ink line to draw a sketch directly on the stone, where it needs to be virtual and where it needs to be solid.
After marking them one by one, a preliminary design is formed, and then the overall outline is carved out and polished and adjusted.
The craftsmanship of chrysanthemum stone carving seems simple, but it is actually very complicated.
After multiple processes such as material collection, material selection, flowering, rough grinding, modeling design, carving, painting, and base making, a beautiful work can be carved out.
Among these processes, the light engraving part involves engraving techniques such as flat engraving, relief engraving, round engraving, openwork engraving, line engraving, hollow engraving, three-dimensional engraving, and comprehensive engraving.
During the carving process, the exquisiteness and rigor of the carving process are evident everywhere.
The cuts need to be carried out in an interlocking manner, layer by layer, and be careful. A deviation of a few millimeters will destroy the integrity of the work.
After careful carving by craftsmen, the stone carving is mounted on a solid wood base, becoming a dazzling work of art that can be viewed, interpreted, and collected with a new look.
Such precious wealth naturally needs to be well protected, otherwise you will regret it when the resources are exhausted.
Since the early 1990s, people have seen that beautiful chrysanthemum stones can bring considerable income, and a large number of quarryers have flooded into the origin of chrysanthemum stones.
Disordered mining leads to industry chaos such as fraud and waste, which not only ruins the reputation of chrysanthemum stones but also harms the entire industry.
On the one hand, the boss who monopolizes the raw material mine of chrysanthemum stone mines without restraint and conducts large-scale production with low technological level;
On the other hand, most chrysanthemum stone workshops are in short supply of raw materials, and many craftsmen have changed careers, leaving no successors to the craftsmanship that has been passed down for hundreds of years.
There are still national-level inheritors, and they have been dealing with chrysanthemum stones all their lives.
For them, the work they consider most proud of is the apprentice they brought out.
But the youngest disciple of these inheritors is also over forty.
Unexpectedly, Chen Wenzhe accidentally saw this special stone craftsmanship here, which can be said to be an unexpected gain.
Only then did he truly realize that stone carvings were not what he originally imagined, but that they were carving various works out of granite, white marble, etc.
There are indeed some other treasures among the stones.
In addition to chrysanthemum stones, there are also many places with precious stones.
Of course, special stones like chrysanthemum stone are still in the minority, and more are granite, such as Hu Jian Hui'an.
Hui'an carving art has a long history, superb craftsmanship and long-standing reputation. It is a wonderful work of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and is known as "one of the best in China".
As early as the Jin Dynasty more than 1,600 years ago, Hui'an stone carving has been used as a permanent art.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hui'an stone carving craftsmanship continued to improve and become more and more perfect.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the ten major buildings in the divine capital and the Jimei Ao Garden of famous overseas Chinese leaders all shone with the artistic brilliance of Hui'an stone carvings.
Hui'an stone carvings originate from the Yellow River Basin. The carving art integrates Central Plains culture, Fujian and Yue culture, and marine culture.
This technique draws on the legacy of the Jin and Tang dynasties, the charm of the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the essence of the styles of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
It forms a Southern style of art that is meticulously carved, delicate and agile.
Together with architectural art, it has become a wonderful piece of Chinese excellent traditional culture.
Hui'an stone carvings are divided into several categories: round sculptures, relief sculptures, sunken sculptures, and shadow sculptures.
Sunken carvings are mainly used for decoration of building walls and stele towers, archways, cliff carvings, plaques, couplets for residences, etc.
With the shape of the line as the main feature, the lines are required to be strong, soft and smooth.
His representative works include the large stone sculpture "The Sun and the Moon Shine Together" in Jinling Yuhuatai Memorial Hall.
Relief refers to images raised on the surface of stone, and is used for stone decoration of large monumental buildings, high-end mansions, and private houses.
Representative works include the Huabiao of Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Jinling in the early years of the Republic of China, the goldfish pond of Guanghua Pavilion, etc.
The craftsmanship of Hui'an stone carvings has reached a very high level as soon as it was introduced.
The earliest existing stone carvings in Hui'an are the stone carvings from the tomb of Wang Chao, the mighty Jiedushi envoy of the late Tang Dynasty.
These stone carvings include civil servants, warriors, tigers, horses, sheep and other garden sculptures, as well as lotus reliefs.
Carvings were made in the Song Dynasty, more than 1,100 years ago, and their craftsmanship has reached a very high level.
The remaining stone generals of the Yangluo Bridge in the Song Dynasty, the Buddha statue carvings on the stone pagodas on the bridge piers, and the sunken inscriptions on the pavilion all show that the technical level of the time was very high, both in terms of stone quarrying and stone carving.
Cai Xiang, the leader of the construction of Yangluo Bridge, had a mother named Lu from Hui'an.
Yangluo Bridge is a cross-sea bridge fifteen miles away from Qingshan. It is made of stacked stone piers and sea stones as anchors. It is a cross-sea bridge that is three miles long.