Recently, Chen Mingwei, a master of Chinese arts and crafts and a representative inheritor of national intangible bone inlay, created two bonewood inlay works, "Fenghua Quicksand" and "Shengshi Streamer", which were selected for the "Third China Good Craftsmanship Exhibition", which will be unveiled in Beijing during the Winter Olympics next February as one of the "Chinese Treasures" series of exhibition activities held to celebrate the 24th Winter Olympics.
A limited edition effort
Material beauty, craftsmanship, charm, timing, this is the consistent strict selection criteria of China Good Craftsmanship Exhibition, this exhibition especially emphasizes the new atmosphere of handicraft in the new era. Approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, sponsored by the China Academy of Arts, 100 works (sets) were carefully selected from all over the country for exhibition at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Bone wood inlaid with "Wind and Quicksand".
The two works "Wind and Quicksand" and "Prosperous Streamer" stand out from thousands of selected works across the country. They are the painstaking works of Chen Mingwei, who pours deep memories, nostalgia in his bones, the precipitation of years, and his craftsmanship into the bags designed and created with traditional techniques of bonewood inlay.
Both works are made of rosewood inlaid boxwood, using rosewood, boxwood, gold leaf, beef bone, etc. as raw materials, using steel wire to saw cattle bone pieces, wood chips, etc. into various ornaments, and after taking grooves on the wooden billet, they are bonded with yellow fish glue to embed the pattern, and then polished and carved, and finally painted.
Bone wood inlaid with "Prosperous Streamers".
The delicate and intricate bone wood inlay depicts various classical elegant patterns such as peony pattern, shou character pattern, and swastika, which are chimeric and beautiful in form. Each piece takes nearly 100 man-hours, and the production method uses three kinds of high embedding, flat embedding, and high-level mixed embedding, and the theme is mainly based on patterns with auspicious meanings, which is in line with the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. It is a traditional craft boutique that integrates traditional elements with the aesthetics of modern life.
Old craftsmanship must also be "pen and ink when the times"
As the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage protection representative project "Ningbo Bone Wood Inlay", Chen Mingwei hopes that by participating in the Winter Olympic Exhibition, the "old craft" will keep up with the pace of the times, so that this "old masterpiece" that comes from the dust of the depths of history can start again in the soil of modern civilization and shine with new brilliance, "hoping to attract more guests at home and abroad to pay attention to and inherit this unique traditional craft of Ningbo and carry it forward."
Chen Mingwei believes that the great masters of arts and crafts can be completely comparable to the art of calligraphy and painting, and also have a big mind and a big realm.
Chen Mingwei's hand-painted first bonewood inlaid bag - a manuscript of a school bag.
Expand the territory of intangible cultural heritage at home and abroad
From running a private museum in Ningbo, to settling in Jiaxing, to entering Shanghai Beach, to grabbing the international market, Chen Mingwei has attacked the city and expanded his intangible cultural heritage territory all the way.
Bone wood inlaid with "Tonight and Tonight".
In 2008, he founded the Zilinfang Art Museum, covering an area of 6.6 acres, with a total construction area of more than 4,000 square meters, costing 22 million yuan, and a total of more than 2,000 pieces of collections in the museum. In the following years, Chen Mingwei immersed himself in the creation of arts and crafts. A few years later, his boxwood carving "Ginseng Ruyi" and bone wood inlay work "Wangong Bed" won the "Mountain Flower Award" of Chinese folk art. During this period, his works such as "Rosewood Carved Hundred Vases" and "Landscape Brush Jane" were collected by the National Museum of China and the China Wood Carving Art Museum.
Bone wood inlaid with "Like Smoke Like a Dream".
Ten years of wall facing figures break the wall. Chen Mingwei realized that the old craftsmanship of Ningbo with an old foundation needs to go out and break into the market. In the second half of last year, his studio successively settled in Shanghai Baoku Ingenuity Museum and Deqiu Cultural and Creative Park, both of which have the distinctive cultural landmark mark of Greater Shanghai and are a centralized display and exchange platform for original works of art of Chinese contemporary craftsmanship.
During this period, Chen Mingwei held a special art exhibition in Shanghai, exhibiting his innovative and developed bone and wood inlaid bags and bags and 100 groups of "Five Hundred Luohan Bamboo Carvings" that were exhibited to the public for the first time in full form.
"Five Hundred Arhat Bamboo Carvings".
At the end of last year, Jiaxing also extended an olive branch to him, and Chen Mingwei was introduced as a national master to settle in Haining and signed a contract with a local cultural and creative company to jointly establish a studio.
Following the selection of his works for the Beijing Winter Olympics exhibition, four bone and wood inlay works, such as "Like Smoke Like a Dream" and "Flowers Blooming rich and noble", which he just sent to the exhibition, were photographed by the "Oriental Imagery in Artifacts" series of the China Design Exhibition, and Chen Mingwei will be invited to participate in the exhibition to be held in Shenzhen at the end of January next year.
Bone wood inlaid with "Flowers Blossom rich".
If it were not for the epidemic, Chen Mingwei would have flown to France a few days ago to participate in the World Handicraft Exhibition, and another Chinese arts and crafts master in China would have participated in the exhibition on behalf of China's good craftsmanship. A French art media agency expressed great interest in Chen Mingwei and his works, and intended to represent and curate his bonewood inlaid luggage brand.
In order to enter the international market, Chen Mingwei is now innovating and designing his "second generation of bags", adding cowhide materials to the luggage design, and integrating fashion leather goods with bone wood inlay technology.
Editor: Hu Linyun