The secret of Xue Bazhu's craftsmanship, which has been mysterious for thousands of years, is actually a layer of window paper. Once this layer of window paper is removed, it is no longer mysterious.
People who have seen it will only sigh: "Oh, so that's it, I understand."
In fact, there are still a few people in Tibet who know this kind of craftsmanship, but they regard this craftsmanship as more important than their lives, and they will only pass it on to their closest relatives when they are about to die. These few people all work together to hide the ancient method of snow.
Bazhu's secret.
I can make copper coins, old porcelain, jades and bronzes. If I want, I can also make real ancient Sherpa beads and make a living from it, but I won't do it because I have more profitable ways.
That afternoon, the black soup was boiling in the big iron pot until half past three. Old Gera looked at it and nodded, meaning it was ready.
I watched the whole process without blinking my eyes.
He picked up the iron pot with a rag and poured the black paste that had been boiled for three days into an iron bucket. I noticed a detail. Before pouring it in, he carefully rinsed the iron bucket with clean water several times.
This step should be done to avoid mixing in impurities.
Later, Lao Guerra brought over six hollow iron pipes, which were ordinary hollow iron pipes, each about two centimeters wide and more than twenty centimeters long.
He inserted six hollow tubes evenly along the edge of the iron bucket. Because they were made of paste, they could stand upright.
Then, he turned around and went into the house and took out a convenience bag. The mouth of the bag was tied tightly with a rubber band.
Lao Guerra opened the instant noodle bag and found a strange red powder inside. Some of the powder was clumped into small pieces, and he would gently break it open with his fingers.
I saw him carefully pouring all the red powder down the hollow tube.
Brother Biao told me that this red powder is the most critical ingredient for making sorbet beads. It is called "rose powder" and is a natural red dye. The reason why sorbet is so red is because ancient people added a lot of rose powder.
By itself, the effect of rose powder is dark red, not that red, but if you add hematoxylin powder in advance, the combined effect will look as red as blood. Both of them are indispensable.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, Lao Guerra gently lifted the hollow copper tube up five centimeters, and then added rose powder into it. > This action was repeated six times until the hollow tube was finally taken out, which took nearly 40 minutes.
I didn't understand, so I asked: "Brother Biao, if you just want to mix the paint, can't you just use a stick to stir it in? Besides, stirring will be more uniform, why bother?"
Brother Biao scratched his head twice and shook his head: "I don't know this, let me ask you."
The answers I got clarified my doubts.
If you look at the pictures, you will see that all old red agate has small pits on its surface, but Sherpa beads have none and are very smooth and flat.
Lao Guerra said that if you stir it with a stick, the sherbet beads will have filamentous textures, which is not acceptable. It must be smooth, because the surface of red coral is smooth, and it needs to imitate the effect of coral.
Now you know?
Many people speculate that sherbet beads are made of red coral powder. This is the reason, because they are deliberately imitated.
Why imitate?
Because imitations are expensive to sell. How much does a pound of wild red coral cost? How much does a pound of plant dye cost? The ancients had wisdom.
Pour the red paste in the bucket into the iron pot again and cook for half an hour before proceeding to the next step.
Old Gera invited me into the house to help him carry something, which was a large round wooden plate. This thing was old and had a layer of oily patina on the surface.
The wooden plate is divided into upper and lower layers. Yes, it looks a bit like an electric baking pan, but it is much larger. After opening it, I was stunned when I saw it.
They are densely packed with small round craters.
There are hundreds of them, and people with trypophobia can't watch this.
If you look closely, you can see that these small pits are all connected with grooves.
Use a spoon to scoop up the red paste and pour it into your mouth.
Visible to the naked eye, the red paste looks like blood and flows smoothly.
It slowly flows into the small pit along the groove, and finally fills the small pit.
Thousands of years ago, ancient sherpa beads were made in this way, without machines and all by hand.
Spoon by spoonful.
After filling it, he closed the lid, held a cigarette in his mouth, and tied the four corners tightly with wire. Then he found a long wooden stick.
This thing had a handle and was hollow. Old Gera inserted a long wooden stick into the handle and hammered it tightly with a hammer.
He called me and the Imperial Master to come over and help.
This step is "pressure forming".
Brother Biao and I ran to one end, together with Lao Gela, a total of three people, and used the principle of leverage to press down on the wooden stick.
Old Gera had a cigarette butt in his mouth and kept shouting loudly: "Whose! Whose! Whose!"
Brother Biao explained that it means "using force", which seems to be pronounced "shed" in Tibetan.
I was thin at that time, so I immediately leaned my entire upper body on the wooden stick and pressed down with all my strength. Brother Biao also blushed and had a thick neck.
"who!"
"Whose! Whose is your mother!"
Lao Gela didn't dare to scold Brother Biao, so he turned around and yelled at me, saying that I was weak and not strong enough.
I heard what Brother Biao said, there is only one chance, if the pressure is not enough, this big pot of snow bead will be useless.
I don't want to cause trouble to anyone, but I swear, I did use all my strength.
Once the wooden stick is pressed down, it cannot loosen, and it will either be formed at once or completely scrapped.
At this time, a sudden gust of wind blew up in the yard, almost blowing me off the stick. Lao Gela suddenly looked overjoyed and shouted loudly behind me.
I turned around and looked.
I saw a fat woman over 1.8 meters tall running quickly. She was tall and fat, and her weight definitely exceeded 220 kilograms.
The fat woman was wearing the Sherpa U-shaped hat I mentioned earlier. She felt as if there was an earthquake. She ran in front of me and without saying a word, pressed her down on the wooden stick.
The stick bends, I was crushed to the bottom in an instant!
When Lao Gela saw this, he burst into laughter.
Brother Biao shouted the slogan: "Take it!"
"Press!"
"receive!"
"Press!"
After repeating it more than twenty times, the bead pressing was completed.
When you open it, you will find a large disc of sorbet beads, all crystal clear and bright red, arranged neatly.
When the sunset shines down, it seems to be coated with a layer of precious light.
After looking at it, Old Gera nodded with satisfaction, and quickly turned back to talk to the fat woman with a smile, probably to express his gratitude.
The fat woman smiled and waved her hands.
The next step is to take out the sorbet beads, grind the edges, and drill holes.
The whole process went through several times, including crushing the ore, boiling the ore for three days, cooling, adding hematoxylin powder, pouring it into a bucket for secondary cooling, adding rose powder, filling the mold, compacting, grinding, and finally drilling the holes.
There are several difficulties in these steps, such as the ratio of adding sappan wood powder and rose powder, where to get the round plate tools, and who has mastered this craft. I am not talking about being rich and powerful, but in this life, I will have a family and a career, and I will not have enough food and clothing.
Worry shouldn't be a problem.
It is said on the Internet that the ancient Snow Bazhu is blood red all over, and no lines can be seen. You can only see a mysterious "pressure line" running through the beads near the hole.
It is conceivable that thousands of years ago, we pressed this "pressure line" by manpower. If machines were used instead, I don't know if this kind of pressure line would still occur.
It was already evening when I finished making the sorbet. I picked up the finished product and looked at it carefully. It was bright red. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it.
Lao Gela had already drilled the hole. I picked up the beads and looked out at the hole with one eye.
Sudden.
Through the small tunnel, I saw a young girl, holding a flute in her hand and dressed in white, running towards me.
By chance, the night wind blew up a corner of her clothes.
I held up the snow bead and froze on the spot.
So beautiful, such a beautiful girl, like a fairy.