Product Description

History of Chinese Lacquer Art

Lacquered thread sculpture is one of the art treasures of the ***0 years' history of lacquer art mine, a South Fujian's traditional craft, with a history of nearly **0 years.  At the end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Qing Dynasty, South Fujian craftsmen began to use the craftsmanship of lacquered thread sculpture in the temples and the celestial Buddha's carved figures for decoration purpose. Due to immature skills and the coarse simple material, mainly using sticky rice and wood base, the works used to be of short preservation time, prone to be eaten by insects and shape deformity often occurred.
 
Afterwards, craftsmen discovered that using red brick tile powder and lacquer liquid mixed as lacquer mud, and then again placing lacquer mud upon wood base for further carving, this way the preservation time will be lasting to several years and even several dozen years. And then, lacquered thread sculpture as a unique craftsmanship product began to be available in the market ,but the early lacquered thread sculptures were few and very expensive, in the years of  Qing Dynasty's Kangxu Period, only in the big temples in South Fujian were found some refined works.
 
After the ***0’s of last century, due to the rapid development of modern technology, traditional crafts were generally neglected by the people, further more, lacquered thread sculpture's craftsmanship is primitive, of complex procedures; several ages of craftsmen have left no written record of the skills, and the folk art is only privately taught and on the verge of extinction. Later on by means of lacquered thread sculpture craftsmen's good effort, and the combination of the achievements of modern technology, lacquered thread sculpture has turned from pure lacquered thread craftsmanship into a combination of 3 major features of the Chinese craftsmanship, boasting the ancient grace of the ceramics of Jingde township, the celestial style of Fuzhou without-base lacquer wares, and the splendor of Beijing cloisonne. Now the lacquered thread sculpture has gone from the home-made style to the industrialization way and from local South Fujian to international market, form local craftsmanship to being awarded the "State Art Treasure of China”. Its application scope has from the original temple decoration developed into the current *0 series of state guest gifts, business gifts, indoor decoration, celebration gifts, tourism souvenirs etc.
 
Lacquered thread sculpture mainly uses materials from natural plants etc, matched with the unique climatic conditions of South Fujian, purely handcrafted with a privately taught skill, the procedures have stripping, coiling, twisting, piling, carving, engraving, cutting etc, all together several dozens. A piece of it will cost several months or even years of professional work, resulting in refined workmanship, vivid presentation, classic and elegant style, real-life picturesqueness, making nearly every piece of it one of a kind, and thus making relieved grain of good refinement. With the surface covered with *9% gold foil, we guarantee the original sheen, fadeless color. This unique skill is specially found only in Xiamen and is one major feature of Xiamen folk art and traditional culture.

The following are several procedures for making lacquered thread sculpture:
1, Material Preparation
Lacquered thread sculpture's material uses natural lacquer, brick powder and many other materials to mix together. brick powder after being mixed with natural lacquer etc, and being beaten for several hours, will form a substance like paste ready for being twisted as the round material of lacquer thread.
2,Twist Thread
To present various pattern, shape, we use special twist board, handcraftedly  twisting into  lacquer threads of different thickness and softness and elasticity.
3,Coiling Shapes
Continually using thread to closely coil into grains of complicated style, and with many shades, to show something like curly clouds, soft waters, booming flowers, and intertwined weeds under the light.
4,Surface Gold Gilding
Place closely gold foil of *4K upon the lacquer threads that have been formed as grains.