[Qing Wei (Old Pipe Chapter) 113] Guan Tingjun | wood carving love affair
Text/Guan Tingjun
A person may have many love affairs in his life, and my life is related to wood carving.
Father is a carpenter in the countryside, when he was a child, he often helped the neighbors to play some furniture, such as large wardrobes, small dining tables, backrest chairs, three cabinets, etc., and sometimes helped neighbors build houses with beams and purlins, saw rafters, so there were more woodworking tools at home, such as various saws, planers, axes, hammers, etc. Rural children do not have any toys, I will pestering my father to use wood to make a box gun, sword and other toys, although not too delicate, but take it out to show off in front of the small friends, the pistol or sword pinned around the waist or raised in the hand, there is also a heroic People's Liberation Army or martial arts hero style, attracting the envy of the small friends.
There are girls in the village who will ask their father to pay the dowry. Because it is a married woman, it is generally more face-saving, and the furniture is generally more delicate, and the father will carve some patterns on the furniture, or do some hollow shapes. Although the father's technique is limited, the texture and shape are somewhat rough, but it still looks much better than ordinary furniture, which makes the main family very satisfied.
In memory, some of the molds for processed foods are carved with more delicate textures, such as fire molds for making fire, mooncake molds, and sugar molds. The wood used to make these molds is relatively dense and smooth, and with frequent use, the handles are smooth and rounded, so I like to touch these molds and experience this slippery feeling. This is probably the embryonic stage of my current love of wood carving.
I grew up in the countryside of Southwest Lu, I have never seen the world, I have always thought that wood grain carving is only used for furniture, utensils, doors and windows, etc., and I do not know enough about wood carving as an elegant art. After working in Heze, I participated in several "forest fairs" and saw many wood carving exhibits in Heze, and only then did I feel that we in Heze also had a rich wood carving culture. This year to go to the forest fair, there are new harvests, I had the honor to walk into the "Heze City Craftsman Wood Carving Culture Co., Ltd." exhibition hall, those dazzling, different shapes, vivid wood carving works deeply attracted me, stop for a long time, appreciate carefully, think, wait for time must go to this enterprise to visit, long insight.
Coincidentally, when I was still immersed in the atmosphere of wood carving at the Forest Fair, one early winter weekend, a literary friend asked me to go to the "Heze City Craftsman Wood Carving Culture Co., Ltd." leisurely, and I gladly promised. After half an hour's journey, we came to this craftsman wood carving enterprise located in the relatively remote Industrial Park of Huangyan Town, Peony District. Subsequently, under the leadership of General Manager Li Yanfeng, the visit began.
The huge "Heze Wood Carving Art Museum," is richly decorated, the wood fragrance is fragrant, and the works are full. At the door of the museum's exhibition hall, a large wood carving is carved from an ancient tree of incense camphor for thousands of years, showing the scene of Qin Shi Huang building the Great Wall and resisting foreign invasion. The works are magnificent, huge in shape, complex in structure and exquisite in skill, and are worthy of the treasures of the town hall.
In the whole wood carving museum, the wood carving products on display can be described as dazzling, with a wide range of themes, the characters are exquisite, the animals are vivid, the insect spirits are cute, the flowers and plants are natural and smooth, the story will be conveyed, and the pieces are warm and exquisite... There is no doubt that each piece is a fine product, or the growth of wood, or the texture, or the shape, three points of artificiality, seven points of nature, each piece of work condenses the ingenious wisdom of the craftsman, showing the exquisite skills of the craftsman.
Among the many sculptures of precious materials, boxwood carvings are the most beautiful. At a glance, I found an image of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, which is both cute and cute, especially the eyes, which vividly shows the thick and cunning mentality of the Eight Precepts of the Pig. "This Pig Eight Precepts is the 'net red' in the exhibition hall, and many people look at him at a glance when they come to visit and inspect, and they all unanimously praise the carving for being very expressive." Although the wood carving of the Eight Precepts of the Pig is not large and only has a head, through the eyes, visitors can imagine the cunning thoughts and actions of the Eight Precepts of the Pig in the TV series "Journey to the West". Li Yanfeng humorously introduced the "Eight Precepts of the Pig".
Entering the carving workshop, several young masters are working intently, holding carving tools, some are depicting the silk feathers of birds and animals, some are shaping the fine texture of pine leaves, and some are quickly carving the huge petals of peony flowers... I was amazed by their skill.
There are a lot of native wood in the workshop, the branches are strangely shaped, the roots are intertwined, the trunk is decayed and cracked, in the eyes of ordinary people, these should be some waste and broken, but after the ingenious conception and careful consideration of the wood carving master, it can be turned into a piece of exquisite products, which can really be described as "turning decay into magic". Dead wood becomes living beings.
I used to go to the mountains to play, like to pick up some special shape of tree roots and branches, good looking to make an ornament, temporarily useless in the storage room to store, plan to have time to buy a set of wood carving tools, their own processing. Looking at the skillful operation tools of the little masters, my wood carving feelings rose again, and I had the opportunity to carve the materials I had stored into works of art to realize my childhood dreams.
Through an afternoon of visiting, I deepened my understanding of wood carving. Wood carving is not only an art, but also carries a heavy culture and history; it not only embellishes our environment, but also makes us feel the infinite charm brought by culture in silence. As a person who has an inextricable relationship with wood carving, it is even more important to carry forward this ancient art!
About the Author:
Guan Tingjun: A native of Chengwu County, Shandong Province, whose screen name is "Guan Tian Guan Di Guan Air", he usually likes to write about the memories and tastes of Lu Southwest, recall the past, and cherish the present.
Editor: Ma Xuemin
One point number Qingwei Heze creative base