You must know that becoming a jade carver is not an easy thing, and it really requires training from an early age. From carving radish at first, to later changing to hard jade, this process requires three to five years of hard work, and
In the meantime, I have to learn painting, which will take several years.
The average jade carver starts his career around the age of thirty. Only those who have a good family background, have been trained since childhood, and have outstanding talents will start taking jobs at Liu Dong's age.
Moreover, it will take years and months of training before the carving skills can continue to improve, so every jade carving master needs a lot of time to settle down.
Moreover, because the process of learning jade carving is too boring, there are fewer and fewer young jade carvers who are learning jade carving outside of their families.
"Xiaodong, are you carrying the objects you carved before?" the old man asked curiously. He wanted to know how much skill this young stone gambler had in jade carving.
After listening to the old man's words, Liu Dong saw that several people's eyes were focused on him. After thinking for a moment, Liu Dong took out a small red silk bag from his neck, and then took out a man wearing a red string.
, the white jade Guanyin with big finger belly, took it off and put it in the old man's hand.
"Mr. Zhang, I have put all the objects I carved recently at home. This is my work half a year ago. Please give it a review!"
After listening to Liu Dong's words, the old man first took a piece of white cloth from his pocket, then took the white jade Guanyin from Liu Dong's hand and placed it on it.
"Xiaodong, it seems that you also understand and love jade! Not bad!" The old man looked at Liu Dong and nodded with satisfaction.
Anyone who knows something about Hetian jade will know that although Hetian jade is crystal clear and beautiful, it also needs careful maintenance by its owner. In addition to the weakness of being afraid of bumping, the wearing of Hetian jade is also very particular.
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Especially for new Hetian jade, it is most forbidden to come into contact with chemicals such as perfume, sweat and oil, because too much contact will damage the outer layer of Hetian jade and affect its original brightness.
"You are so honored!" Liu Dong said modestly.
Hearing this, the old man smiled and nodded, his eyes focused more on the jade Guanyin.
Soon, the old man's face showed a look of surprise.
"Well, the knife technique is simple, but the workmanship is fine. The lines of the clothes are smooth, and the Guanyin statue is fair and majestic. It is the style of our northern jade carving, and the material is also good, it is the seed material of Hetian jade."
"Judging from the carving skills, Huo Hou is also very experienced. If you work hard for a few more years, you can be rated as a provincial jade carving master!" After saying this, the old man looked up at Liu Dong and said with admiration: "Xiaodong, you are very good.
Ah, it is really rare to have such a level of skill in jade carving at such a young age! It seems that we in the northern jade carving world have a successor!"
The craft of jade carving has a long history in China. Since ancient times, it has been divided into north and south. By the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the "Southern Gong" and "Northern Gong" had been clearly distinguished.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, jade carving formed a three-pronged trend of "Capital", "Suzhou" and "Yangzhou". Since the founding of New China, jade carving factories have been established in BJ, SH, TJ, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing and other places, and masters have worked
The emergence of jade carving masters, etc., formed a new jade carving school. Chinese jade carving art has initially formed four major jade carving art schools: "Northern School", "Shanghai School", "Yang School" and "Southern School".
It's just that in recent years, compared with the flourishing talents of other schools, the northern jade carving world, which was born out of the Royal Palace Building Office and has a steady and majestic carving style, solemn and simple, has been experiencing a slight trend of failure.
Although the older generation of jade carving masters in the northern jade carving world, like Mr. Yan, whom Liu Dong wanted to become a disciple of before, and Mr. Zhang in front of him, are still alive, there are very few outstanding ones among the younger generation. In recent years, there are even more outstanding ones.
There is a danger of annihilation.
Therefore, this time when he saw Liu Dong, a young talent who adhered to the northern style of jade carving, Mr. Zhang couldn't help but feel a little fond of him. He also looked much closer to Liu Dong with his eyes.
"Thank you, sir! I'm just getting started with my jade carving skills. I still need more guidance from a jade carving master like you!" This is not Liu Dong's own modesty, but his true feelings about carving recently.
The reason why there is a saying in the old saying "Live and learn" is because no matter which field you are in, you can only truly appreciate its breadth and depth only after you really go deep into it.
Just like Huang Binhong, a master of traditional Chinese painting in modern China, he is still exploring the road of calligraphy and painting at the age of eighty, and finally created the peak of "Black Binhong" calligraphy and painting, which is equally divided between the north and the south of Qi Baishi, the great flower and bird master of the Republic of China.
Until he died of illness at the age of ninety, he continued to study and paint, and he never stopped exploring the path of calligraphy and painting throughout his life.
It can be seen from this that the pursuit of the peak of art will never end, and only those superficial people who are not good at learning art and stand outside will feel that they have accomplished something and have nothing left to achieve.
Seeing the serious look on Liu Dong's face, the admiration in the old man's eyes became even stronger. Based on his decades of life experience, he could naturally tell whether what Liu Dong just said was based on his feelings or was a clever word.
"Okay, haha! It's rare that you have such insight at such a young age. Now I'm curious about who can teach such an outstanding disciple like you?"
Facing the old man's complimentary inquiry, Liu Dong said humbly: "You are always over-praising me. My ability to make jade carvings is all based on my own imagination!"
"So you don't have a master, how is this possible?" After listening to Liu Dong's words, the old man couldn't help but widen his eyes, and his old face showed a strong look of surprise.
"Haha, Mr. Zhang, I can testify to this. Xiaodong's jade carving skills are all self-taught. He has never learned from anyone, let alone the jade carver!" At this time, Zhou Bin, who was standing aside, said with a smile.
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"It's incredible, I really didn't expect it!" The old man shook his head with a sigh on his face, and then continued: "Xiaodong, it seems that the old man underestimated you this time!"
"You can study jade carving to this level all by yourself without any tutors. It can be seen that you are really talented in this area!"
After saying this, the old man looked at Liu Dong and nodded. After looking him up and down, his face showed a look of thinking. Then he looked at Liu Dong with a certain expression and continued: "Xiaodong, since you
Now that you don’t have a teacher, and you are so talented in jade carving, how about I introduce you to a teacher, so that you can move faster on the jade carving road."
Obviously, after seeing Liu Dong's talent in jade carving, the old man became interested in talent and wanted to play a guest role.
However, Zhou Bin didn't know what to do at this time. Originally, he introduced Liu Dong and the others to Mr. Zhang just because he wanted Liu Dong to expand his contacts, especially in the jade carving world. It will help him communicate more with these master jade carvers and improve his jade carving skills.
Zhou Bin didn't want to ask Liu Dong to become his apprentice here, and although Mr. Zhang is also a national-level jade carving master, his level is slightly lower than Mr. Yan, who is like Optimus Prime in the northern jade carving world.
Now, Liu Dong was a little confused after listening to the old man's words. He did not expect that Mr. Zhang would ask him to become his disciple.
To be honest, Liu Dong had already had the idea of becoming a master of jade carving and learning jade carving systematically.
It's just that he came from an ordinary background and didn't have many interpersonal relationships when he came to Quancheng, a strange city. He hasn't found any connections in these years, and he doesn't have much money, so this matter has been delayed.
Last time, Uncle Long asked for Zhou Bin's help for him, and he had a way to become a disciple of Mr. Yan, which really made Liu Dong very happy.
Therefore, during this period, he actually bought a lot of jadeite and Hetian jade to practice his carving skills, so that when he went to the capital to participate in the jade carving competition later in the year, he would be favored by Mr. Yan, become his disciple, and learn systematically The craftsmanship of carving jade.