Chapter 1902 The most precious root carving in the world
Camphor wood is used among the people to make furniture, sculptures, wood products and home decoration.
This is a material used in construction and furniture that does not deform and is resistant to insects.
Camphor wood has fine wood, natural texture, and tough texture, which is not easy to break or crack.
Folks often use camphor wood to carve Buddha statues. Needless to say, it is also a very good wood for carving.
Since it is mostly used for carving among the people, the inventory is naturally high.
And how can wood carvings made of so many precious woods be passed down through the ages? Naturally, they need to be well maintained.
Speaking of root carving, there are many key points that need to be paid attention to in the maintenance of root carvings.
The main maintenance of root carvings is to prevent the root carving works from being exposed to direct sunlight, and avoid long-term exposure to sunlight.
Excessive light will cause the color of the work to fade, the wax layer on the surface to melt, the paint film to age and fall off, and even the material to crack.
Since it cannot be exposed to strong light, root carvings must also be prevented from being stored in an excessively dark and humid environment.
Too high humidity can easily breed mold, diseases and insect pests, causing mildew, insect infestation, and rot and cavities.
Root carving works are generally not suitable for washing, and they should not be soaked in water. Pay attention to air circulation.
During this period, you must also prevent corrosive chemicals from coming into contact with the root carving works to avoid chemical reactions that may cause damage to the surface protective film or peeling off of the root carvings.
The indoor location should be away from doors, windows, air vents and other places with strong air flow, and should not be exposed to strong direct sunlight.
It should not be placed near open fire, fire wall, fire kang, or stove.
Do not place it near a heater in winter and avoid excessive indoor temperature.
It should not be placed in an extremely humid or extremely dry room - in a very humid environment, some wood carving handicrafts will grow "hair".
For example, green sandalwood handicrafts will spit out silver-white silk.
In an environment that is too dry, some wood carvings may partially crack.
Keep the surface clean. Because it is completely exposed to the outside, it is easy to collect dust, especially the carved parts, which are more likely to accumulate dust.
The dust contains various oxides and debris, which must be removed in time, otherwise the surface of the handicraft will be corroded.
Daily use of waxy or grease-containing cotton towels can be used to wipe.
Generally, if possible, you can apply wax once every six months, and then use a dry cotton cloth to remove oil and polish. Be careful not to use a towel with water to wipe.
These are actually soft protection, as well as hard protection, which is to avoid trauma.
When collecting, try to avoid collisions and collisions, especially collisions with metal appliances.
Especially the openwork parts should be carefully protected.
Finally, and the most important thing is to prevent moths and insects.
Most of the pests are various wood borers and termites, and collectors can use chemical moth-proofing methods.
For example, place camphor balls, or you can use the spray you usually use to spray mosquitoes, and spray it several times on the areas with moths.
The reason why root carvings are so carefully protected must be that each root carving is, in principle, unique.
Every root carving is a miracle given to us by nature, especially some of the treasures, which are even more ingenious and must be protected.
Only when you enter the root carving collection circle can you truly understand how difficult it is to create every good root carving.
And now Chen Wenzhe knows that root carving only exists in my country and is popular all over the world.
It was only now that he realized how big the largest root sculpture was, which was a 3-meter giant root sculpture "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
The work is 3 meters long, 3 meters wide and 8 meters high. It was worked by more than ten craftsmen and took nearly 4 years to complete.
It should also be the most precious root carving in the world because its material is carved from a giant piece of ebony.
This ebony tree is more than 1,000 years old and was taken from the bottom of the Minjiang River.
This ebony wood is 7.0 meters long, 1.9 meters in diameter at breast height, and weighs nearly 30 tons!
It is completely black and looks like a crouching dragon!
More than a dozen of my country's top sculptors enlarged the painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan of the Ming Dynasty to twice the size, which took more than 1,600 hours to complete!
And it’s creative, reproducing the entirety of the original work in three dimensions!
Therefore, when making root carvings, you first need to consider material selection.
Only with good materials can we have good works. This is the premise and key.
Material selection is the first and most important step in root carving production.
Whether it is the Taihang aged thuja produced on the cliffs of the Taihang Mountains or the widely distributed moso bamboo, these materials are always eye-catching when passed through the hands of masters.
It is difficult to make a very delicate and spiritual work.
The main difficulty is to conceive and create based on the natural shape of tree roots. The production process requires modification according to the situation while making, and requires a lot of life experience to support it.
For example, when making a longevity peach, you can't make it behind closed doors. Before you start thinking about it, you have to go to the peach garden to see how the leaves and trunk are connected, and what the proportions are.
In our country, root carvings such as Along the River During the Qingming Festival are not uncommon, such as a giant root carving of Five Hundred Arhats with a total length of 680 meters.
This is currently the longest giant root carving formation of Five Hundred Arhats in the world, a work created by a master who took ten years to create it.
There is also the heaviest root sculpture, which is a giant lion root sculpture.
This root sculpture weighs 30 tons, is 11 meters long and 4 meters high.
According to the root carving processor, this is the largest "Lion King" in my country so far.
It took four root carving masters more than half a year to complete, and the processing fee alone was more than 1 million yuan.
There are two pieces slightly smaller than this one, which are two root carvings of "sacred cows".
The length is 9.6 meters, the height is 4 meters, and the weight is 1 ton and 1 ton respectively.
These two root carvings are carved from the entire root of a nanmu tree that is more than 3,000 years old. The hair on the entire body is cleverly represented by countless root nodules.
Then there are the mammoth root carvings. Even the mammoth teeth are very realistic, and the texture on the body also looks very vicissitudes of life!
Among the animals there is a cheetah, and among the characters there are immortals. These are all rare treasures.
For example, although the cheetah root carving is the "big one" among root carvings, it is not inferior to the small ornaments in terms of detailed workmanship.
Generally speaking, a giant root carving work requires more than a dozen masters to work together for more than several months to complete.
Therefore, the creation of root carvings takes a long time, from material selection, modeling, conception and production to naming, which can take as short as three to five days and as long as half a year.
The conception of root carving creation must focus on protecting the natural shape and natural beauty to the greatest extent.
And all traces of man-made artistic re-creation should be hidden in the beauty of nature.
When conceiving, the root material should be comprehensively observed from multiple angles, and the final shape can be finalized only after repeated attempts to figure it out.
Chen Wenzhe saw many root carving works that left a deep impression on him.
For example, bamboo sections are made into awning boats, and the bamboo roots connected to them are carved into fishermen.
The snarling bamboo roots weave into the coir raincoat on the fisherman's body.
There are also several cormorants standing on the boat, lifelike;
A welcoming pine tree made of thuja has waving branches and leaves. Under the cover of the leaves, a bird's nest is looming, with three baby birds inside waiting to be fed...