The Winter Olympics in front of my house | this Chongli person skillfully clay sculpture "Snow Ruyi" to send love to the Winter Olympics

Inside the bucket room, a wire skeleton shaped like a large spoon is displayed, and next to the skeleton is a piece of red glue clay. Xie Siguang's ten fingers are dexterous, pinching, pressing, rubbing, kneading, pressing, pasting, carving, carving, squeezing, wiping... It was as if dancing on the red clay, and like singing indulgently, after a while, pinching out one shape after another, and then little by little, pinching the shape onto the skeleton.

Recently, a clay sculpture "Snow Ruyi", which is brownish red in all over, 120 centimeters long and more than 50 centimeters in height and width, was completed in the hands of Xie Siguang, the inheritor of Zhangjiakou Intangible Cultural Heritage (Clay Sculpture Technique), which took 2 months to complete, a clay work with a strong local atmosphere of Chongli, representing the ice and snow passion of Chongli people eagerly awaiting the Winter Olympics.

The 53-year-old Xie Siguang is a native of Chongli who mastered the craft of clay kneading by self-taught. When he was a child, he often played with his friends with the red glue mud unique to his hometown. In his hands, red glue clay was given new life and meaning, and when he was in his 20s, he won the honors of Hebei Provincial Art Master of Industrial and Art Industry and Hebei Provincial Folk Arts and Crafts Master with exquisite clay sculptures.

In 2015, with the successful bid of Beijing and Zhangjiakou for the Winter Olympics, Xie Siguang turned the focus of his creation to the theme of ice and snow sports, and in 2019, the first batch of clay sculptures on ice and snow sports themes such as "Snowboard", "Double Board" and "Freestyle Skiing" came out.

Two years ago, Xie Siguang had a dream in his heart and personally pinched the "Snow Ruyi" of the National Ski Jumping Center to present a gift to the Winter Olympics. He has run to the National Ski Jumping Center 7 times, repeated observation, and each time he returns from the survey, he must draw dozens of "construction" design drawings, repeatedly examine and modify, just to restore the truth.

"Only by making such a large size can the details of 'Snow Ruyi' be restored as much as possible and achieve true reproduction." Xie Siguang said. Just when he was struggling with how to build the "Xue Ruyi" skeleton, it coincided with the wall insulation in the community where he lived, Xie Siguang was inspired to use the external insulation block used for construction as the main material of the skeleton, and then used other auxiliary materials such as tubing and branches to build the prototype of the skeleton.

"I decided to create with my hometown's unique red glue clay." Xie Siguang said that the red clay in his hometown is ruddy in color, good in gum and strong in plasticity, which can show the characteristics of simple and enthusiastic northerners.

Xie Siguang carried a shovel on his back, walked all over the ditches and ridges, and finally found red glue mud in Wushijia Village, 70 kilometers away from the county seat. The red glue mud is buried in the soil layer below 1.5 meters from the ground, and the deeply excavated glue mud cannot be used directly, and it needs to be soaked and stirred in water in a large bucket, wait for a few days, the sand particles sink, and only take the intermediate slurry layer. "In order to get the mud and through, I bought a steamed bun and noodle machine to make mud." He smiled and said that the reconciled glue was divided into squares, and it was better to use after being fed.

Immediately after, he also produced 15 clay sculpture ice and snow sports, figure skating, curling, freestyle skiing, alpine skiing... The characters are dynamic and different, and each piece is vivid, embodying the Olympic spirit.

After the completion of the "Snow Ruyi" sculpture, Xie Siguang also carefully added a light strip. He said that he heard that when the official competition is held, "Snow Ruyi" will hold 10 games, of which 6 will be held at night, which requires higher lighting, and the real "Snow Ruyi" has built 15 large lampposts to ensure that the game is "bright as day". When Xie Siguang's "Snow Ruyi" light flickered, it seemed to bring the visitors into the dazzling competition scene at once, but Xie Siguang smiled quietly in the corner.