The process of glazing pottery is not complicated, in fact it is very simple.
You only need to grind easy-to-smelt metal minerals or fixed glazes into powder, then add water to prepare a slurry, paint it on the surface of the pottery and fire it in the kiln for a second time. The final result is pottery with a layer of enamel.
There are many types of pottery that are common in later generations, but those that have survived from ancient times are all unglazed primitive earthen pots, or they may be painted with some mineral pigments, but they are mainly used for decoration and do not form a protective layer similar to enamel.
It was not until the Han Dynasty that the glazing process slowly began to appear in China. At first, metal ore powder such as iron was used directly. The fired glaze was black with an iron texture, which was called black glaze. Later, it was developed in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Thousands of years of continuous exploration and improvement have finally developed a variety of colorful glaze techniques with the characteristics of the times.
By the Qing Dynasty, under the influence of the original aesthetics of the Manchus, colored glazes had developed to the point where the colors were dazzling and swollen. The bottles and jars were piled up with various bright and complex colors, giving people a sense of nouveau riche.
a feeling of.
In fact, in the history of the development of pottery and porcelain, glaze and color were initially indistinguishable. Later, they were gradually divided into two types. Then in the process of making porcelain, they were divided into two different types: overglaze color and underglaze color.
Glaze technology.
In view of the current appreciation level and consumption power of primitive people, Xu Chen would definitely not make it too complicated, and it is also difficult to achieve the current technology of pure glass glaze layer, so he would only use the simplest method.
That is, after grinding the existing metal minerals of various colors, they are directly painted on the surface of the pottery, and then fired in the kiln in the same way as the pottery, so that the metal minerals are semi-melted to form a new layer on the surface of the pottery.
The protective layer.
For the sake of beauty, two glazing processes can also be carried out. First, use mineral pigments to draw some colors on the prepared pottery. After firing, use a layer of clay or kaolin glaze that contains more silica.
After firing twice, it becomes the underglaze color.
Glaze coloring is the opposite, applying glaze first and then applying color.
From a technical perspective, underglaze coloring is simpler and more convenient.
However, even these simple techniques cannot be produced immediately by a group of Ba kiln workers, and it will take a long time of exploration.
And Xu Chen doesn't have so much time to spend on it.
Therefore, the first batch of glazes that Xu Chen guided Ba kiln workers to experiment with were iron glazes.
The Ba people have collected a large number of various metal ores over the years, including many iron ores, such as magnetite, hematite, pyrite, etc. They select some hematite and grind it into the finest powder with a stone mortar and pestle.
Then add water to make a mud-like glaze. Use a brush to apply a thin layer on the inside and outside of the fired pottery. After leaving it to dry, it becomes a bright red pottery bowl. However, after firing in the kiln, the iron
Slowly deoxidized and reduced at high temperatures, it will appear black.
Although he only planned to do a simple experiment, one kiln also required hundreds of pieces of pottery, so Xu Chen did not just experiment with iron glazes, but also obtained a lot of ores of various colors to make materials of different colors.
The paste is applied on some pottery clays like painting, so within a few days, there are pottery of various colors, large and small, in the kiln, which looks colorful and eye-catching.
Regarding glazing, Xu Chen actually didn't know the specific methods and steps, but after all, his knowledge accumulation was different. Even if he failed to do it once or twice, he believed that as long as a group of kiln workers continued to experiment and follow his methods, Improve and eventually be able to master this technology.
What's more, even if the glazing fails, at least they have learned to make brightly colored painted pottery. This is also a unique pottery craft of the Ba people. Other tribes will not be able to imitate it in a short time. In the future, the Ba people's pottery will also occupy the high-end market and become a new point of wealth growth.
Although the new pottery is still in the experimental stage, the pottery can be made so beautiful, which immediately caused a sensation among the entire Ba people. Every day, groups of adults and children gather around the kiln to watch, and many people even roll up their sleeves. With help, the kiln factory once again returned to the lively scene it had been when it was most popular a few years ago, and the atmosphere of the entire Ba ethnic group was extremely harmonious. Several families gathered together every day to talk and laugh lively, because the sadness caused by the death of their mother Ba also disappeared. Fading away day by day.
While instructing the kiln in the processing and glazing of painted pottery, Xu Chen had people use horse-drawn carriages to deliver many pottery pots for winemaking to the Muya tribe.
In addition, after being busy, he also found time to teach children, tell stories, teach singing and painting, take them fishing, play games, walk dogs, train monkeys, ride horses, and even took exams to check their learning status.
A group of children, big and small, especially liked Xu Chen's class and played with him. So all day long, you could see Xu Chen followed by a large group of boys and girls, laughing and chasing each other, and the laughter resounded throughout the valley. .
Every time I saw the lively scene of Xu Chen playing with a group of children, my mother and all the adult men and women all had smiles of joy and happiness on their faces, and they even gathered around and cheered and applauded.
This kind of situation has not been seen among the Ba people for a long time.
Only when Xu Chen goes home can everyone be so relaxed and happy.
In addition to upgrading the pottery industry, Xu Chen provided the Ba people with another new technology, which is bamboo weaving.
In the blink of an eye, it has been five years since bamboo was introduced from the Cicha tribe. In the past five years, the first batch of bamboos planted by the Ba, Wu, and Gonghuo tribes have now grown into bamboo forests.
There are hundreds of bamboos growing near the foot of the mountain behind the Guangba compound, and several pieces of bamboo are almost connected into one, which looks very eye-catching and spectacular.
Now in spring, bamboo shoots are sprouting and growing like crazy. There are bamboo shoots as thick as an arm everywhere, some of which are already two or three meters high.
These bamboos have now entered their most vigorous growth period. If they continue to develop, in ten or eight years, it is estimated that there will be a large bamboo forest of more than ten acres near the foot of the mountain.
Bamboo generally matures in three years.
Nowadays, many old bamboos can be used to make utensils.
Xu Chen had been very busy in the past two years, and he was also worried that cutting down the old bamboo too early would affect the growth of the bamboo forest, so he hardly touched it, only cutting a few branches and making some small things.
Although the Ba people knew the benefits of bamboo, they would not have rashly cut it down unless Xu Chen told them.
Although Xu Chen doesn't know how to make bamboo utensils, he is no stranger to it.
I have never eaten pork and I have seen pigs running away.
As a child who grew up in a rural village, he has seen all kinds of bamboo wares.
He has seen most of the common bamboo utensils made, such as bamboo baskets, back baskets, cool beds, lounge chairs, dustpans, sieves, bamboo plaques, fish baskets, etc. He has seen people make them with his own eyes and roughly knows how to make them.
These are the oldest traditional crafts in rural areas. There are so many people who have inherited them for thousands of years. It is not easy to do them well, but it is very simple to do them. In the end, the questions are whether they look good, whether they are easy to use, and whether they are strong or not.
Therefore, after Xu Chen made arrangements for the kiln, he selected a few clever, experienced and steady men, cut down some old bamboo, and taught them how to break and cut the bamboo to make simple bamboo weaving utensils.
Watching Xu Chen use a hatchet to easily break the thick bamboo and cut it into thin and long strips, this miraculous technique naturally amazed the tribesmen.
And when they saw Xu Chen weaving an exquisite bamboo basket out of these thin strips, the entire Ba tribe became excited again, especially the women, who happily rushed to watch.
Bamboo baskets are light and delicate, far more beautiful and lighter than rattan baskets made of finger-thick ivy.
The Ba people have long since passed the age of just struggling for food and clothing. Now they are also constantly pursuing beauty. The sophistication of food, clothing and housing has always been ahead of all tribes.
Back when everyone was still living in caves, the Ba people lived in adobe compounds.
Nowadays, while various tribes are still living in adobe houses or even simple wooden houses, they have begun to live in buildings with rammed earth and clay tiles.
As for food, clothing, housing and transportation, the Ba people are far behind other tribes.
However, in terms of daily use of utensils, the Ba tribe does not have a big lead. Like other tribes, they still use ordinary pottery, copperware and rattan tools, but there are just more.
But the emergence of bamboo-woven utensils seems to have suddenly enabled the Ba people to find another technology worthy of leadership and pride.
And this bamboo basket is just Xu Chen’s appetizer.
In the following days, he successively made bamboo baskets, bamboo baskets, bamboo plaques, dustpans and other utensils.
Although these things all looked crooked and horrible in Xu Chen's eyes, it had to be said that the experience accumulated by rattan weaving over the years allowed him to successfully make all of these things in one go, and they could be used once they were done.
The production of these common and crude utensils was only used by Xu Chen to practice his skills.
After becoming more proficient in the bamboo weaving techniques, he officially started to make two other difficult bamboo weavings, namely sieves and bamboo hats.
The bamboo sieve is the most commonly used tool in life, and is needed for sifting rice and surface.
Nowadays, with stone mills, wheat beans can be ground into flour, but the bran inside cannot be cleaned and can only be made into food together. The bran is not easy to digest, and it is also very rough and astringent when eaten.
With a flour sieve, the bran in the flour can be removed, so that a more delicate and smooth flour can be obtained, and the food produced will be more delicious and taste better.
As for the rice sieve, the principle is the same, but the mesh is larger. Now that we have rice, it will be a necessary tool in the future. Otherwise, the brown rice that comes out in spring will be difficult to clean, and there will be a lot of rice grains with husks, which will get stuck in the throat when eaten.
It can be cleaned one by one by hand, which is very energy-consuming and time-consuming. When the spring comes, the rice will only need to be simply filtered through a rice sieve and it will be perfectly resolved.
Compared with the rice sieve, the noodle sieve is more delicate and sophisticated, so the bamboo strips drawn out are also required to be thinner, and only very thin bamboo greens can be used. Of course, weaving takes more effort and time.