Dongpo elbows, roast lamb, golden flatbread... In an exhibition hall in Qinglian Poetry Town, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, a table of stone-made "Manchu Han Quan seat" comes to life.
The creator of this table "Stone Edition full of Han Seats" is Liu Xiaodong, a Mianyang River oil man, who is now 46 years old. After entering the play stone circle 9 years ago, he combined his cooking techniques with playing stone and began to create a "stone version of the Full Han Dynasty", using stones from the Gobi Desert in Xinjiang, including Gobi stone, agate, mud and stone, etc., a total of more than 80 kinds. In addition to the "Full Han Dynasty", he also created "Portrait of Li Bai" and so on out of stone, and painted with scenery one by one, which was very realistic.
Stone creation of "Full Han Seat"
In the past 9 years, in order to buy stones, Liu Xiaodong spent millions of savings, and his family once thought that "he was crazy", so he and his wife had constant conflicts and eventually divorced. But none of this changed his penchant for continuing to play with stones and collect stones. Now, his works are baked one by one, and even some people come to customize. He told Red Star News that the reason why he insisted on playing with stones and creating was because he understood the philosophy of life from the stones, and his soul was closer to nature...
"Full Table":
It took 9 years to create in stone
Spend half a year looking for a stone for a "dish"
On the morning of July 6, in the Qinglian Poetry Town of Jiangyou, Sichuan, Liu Xiaodong wiped his own creations in the Gobi Treasure Museum of Cultural and Artistic Inheritance established by himself, as if taking care of his own children.
In a room called "Stone Banquet Hall", a large table was placed with Dongpo elbows, roast lamb, golden flatbread... A total of 108 dishes, this is Liu Xiaodong spent 9 years to create a stone version of the "Full Han Table".
Stone creation of "Dongpo Elbow"
Red Star News reporters saw at the scene that each dish is made of stones of different sizes, "Dongpo Elbow" is exquisite, and "Golden Flatbread" uses 9 stones, the shape and size are almost the same, at first glance, it looks like a real delicacy.
Looking at this table "full of Han and Han", although they are all created in stone, the "color and fragrance" are all there, which makes people salivate.
Stone-created "Golden Pie"
For this special "full han seat", Liu Xiaodong spent a full 9 years.
He told Red Star News that he used to learn to cook and has a natural yearning for food. Later, he did not work as a chef, but his cooking skills did not fall. In 2012, after he began to play with stones, he wanted to create a stone version of "Full Han Seat". Now, this wish is basically fulfilled.
However, it is not easy to use stones to make "full seats", in addition to creativity and ideas, often in order to find a suitable stone, it takes too much time and energy.
"After combining cooking techniques with playing with stones, plus some creativity and ideas, it's time to patiently search for the stones you need to create." Liu Xiaodong introduced to Red Star News, such as the 9 stones used in the "Golden Flatbread", in order to make them similar in shape and size, he spent half a year to find them all.
Obsessed with playing with stones:
Spend millions of dollars on savings and get divorced
The family thinks "he's crazy"
Playing with stones, for Liu Xiaodong, has reached a state of obsession.
Liu Xiaodong told Red Star News that many years ago, he began to work in Xinjiang, doing some engineering work. Since 2012, he has been attracted by the Gobi stones of the desert and has since begun the road of strange stone collection.
Stone created roast lamb
"Gobi stone has an alternative beauty, natural beauty, not only natural, but also natural, no artificial processing, modification or carving." Pointing to the works he created, Liu Xiaodong's eyes were full of pride.
Liu Xiaodong said that he also went from not understanding at all to slowly studying. In a play stone market in Xinjiang, the owner of half of the market is his teacher. At the beginning, he didn't know anything about stones, so he went deep into the market after work, talked with the stone seller, and then learned to study stones.
"Later, as long as I like the stone, I will buy it directly." Once, I brought 50,000 yuan in cash, bought all the stones, and as a result, the money for taxis was gone, so I still called the workers to drive to pick me up. Liu Xiaodong said that because of his arrogance, he can buy stones without cash, and the bosses trust him.
Stone created flowers
In 2018, Liu Xiaodong returned to Jiangyou, but still has to go to Xinjiang several times a year, "the hottest summer is close to 50 ° C, the winter is cold to minus 20 ° C, every time I will ask the locals to drive us in (Gobi), once I go in, it is a week, and sometimes I am really lonely and cold." He told Red Star News that a little attention on the Gobi Desert would be lost, and if you encountered a sandstorm, you could be soaked in a trip.
After falling in love with playing with stones, Liu Xiaodong began to collect stones. He was originally working on construction projects and had some savings, but all of them were spent on collecting stones, spending millions in 9 years. This act of his was also opposed by his parents, wife and other relatives.
Stone created calligraphy and painting
"They even thought I was crazy because I had spent money on a bunch of rocks, and my wife and I were in conflict and divorced 3 years ago." Liu Xiaodong said that even so, it did not change his hobby and confidence in collecting stones, "Later, my works slowly came out, and my family was amazed, but there were still some worries."
Dotted stone painting:
Portraits of Li Bai were also created from stone
"Playing with stones brings my mind closer to nature"
In Liu Xiaodong's exhibition hall, in addition to the "Manchu Han Full Seat", there are many calligraphy and paintings created with stones. He introduced that he had never learned to paint before, since he began to collect stones, he found that these colorful and unique Gobi stones were particularly beautiful with each other, and the individual stones and plants were also very harmonious, which made him think of a new "way of playing" - the artistic conception and techniques of painting were used on the Gobi stones, hand-stitched and bonded, and finally formed a lifelike "painting".
Lee Bai Images
The Red Star News reporter saw that on the wall of an exhibition hall there was a "Portrait of Li Bai", all made of stones spliced piece by piece, and these stones were not processed in any way, and the portrait was accompanied by the verse "Raise a glass to invite the bright moon". In the middle of the exhibition hall are two words made of stone: wine fairy!
The word "wine fairy" created by the stone
"Jiangyou is Li Bai's hometown, and my creative works are definitely inseparable from Li Bai." And the creation of these works, each stone is selected from thousands of stones, the length and thickness are very exquisite, a little longer, thicker will affect the feeling of the entire work, can be combined, it is really difficult. Liu Xiaodong said.
"Painting with scenery and writing with text, so that the stone 'comes alive', everything looks very realistic." Liu Xiaodong said that now he still has to go to Xinjiang every year to collect stones, but also through video to buy, now there are more than 30 frames of stones at home, "Playing with stones in recent years, I learned to be quiet, but also learned to grow, from the stones to understand the philosophy of life, so that my soul is closer to nature."
Red Star News reporter Tang Xiaojun photo report
Edited by Zhang Li
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