With the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games approaching, sales of Olympic licensed goods are gradually heating up. Among the various licensed goods, the "Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure" based on Ruifeng and made of Wada green white jade has become the "star" of it. Behind this small seal, not only the Chinese arts and crafts master Zhang Tiecheng and his team have poured a lot of painstaking efforts, but also carry the beautiful vision of traditional Chinese arts and crafts people to build the dream of the Winter Olympics. Recently, we walked into Zhang Tiecheng's studio and listened to the story of The Chinese non-hereditary people behind the "Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure".
Thousands of hammers and hundreds of refinements from scratch to interpret the "Phoenix of the Winter Olympics"
As the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Beijing jade carving, Zhang Tiecheng has poured all his efforts into the production of the "Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure" from design, material selection to production.
"In the production of this Winter Olympic emblem treasure, we considered forming a 'dragon and phoenix Chengxiang' with the Olympic emblem treasure in 2008, so we considered using the image of the phoenix as the new seal when designing." Zhang Tiecheng said that although the idea is simple and natural, it is quite difficult to operate in practice, because there are almost no seals with the image of a phoenix in history. "In history, there is no prototype of the phoenix seal, and the palace seal is the dragon seal. Therefore, when designing, our team has carried out a lot of thinking and creation, and there are thousands of design drafts alone. "The main difficulty is how to skillfully combine the flexibility of the phoenix with the thickness of the seal. After a lot of research, drawing and comparative selection, it was determined to be the flat image of the current "Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure" Phoenix.
From graphic design to three-dimensional design, this is another challenge faced by Zhang Tiecheng's team. "Going from flat to three-dimensional is a very complicated thing. After we determine the image of the phoenix, we must comprehensively consider the elements of the finished product, so the jade material selected and the size of the finished product must be carefully considered. Zhang Tiecheng said that considering that the finished product of Huibao not only needs to be luxurious and beautiful, but also needs to take into account practicality, so Huibao cannot be too large or too small. After many measurements and tests, the final draft was 5.6 cm as the side and 6.9 cm as the height, which not only presented the dignified and atmospheric posture of Huibao, but also met the needs of consumers for practicality.
Carefully selected 15:1 to lay the foundation for the beauty of the emblem
"It's hard for a woman to cook without rice." Zhang Tiecheng said this when describing Huibao's selection of materials. In his opinion, the material used to make the Winter Olympic emblem treasure must be the first. "We make jade and pay attention to the art of adapting to the material. Cutting is the most difficult in the whole process, because jade is a non-renewable resource, and it is easy to find cracks and defects in the process of cutting. As long as there are obvious flaws found, this piece of material will be eliminated. Therefore, when we make it, it is basically 15 kilograms of jade to cut out the material of a square emblem treasure. "It is precisely such a high material elimination rate that has a dignified and atmospheric posture of the Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure."
Chinese jade carving master Wang Jian also participated in the design and production of the Winter Olympic emblem treasure. She introduced that from the blank to the finished product, the selection of materials for the Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure cannot be sloppy. "A lot of the cut blanks are eliminated in our engraving process. Of the more than 100 blanks, only three can be finally finished in the production. "The carving of Huibao is also an important process for testing Huibao materials. After carving the basic image on the blank, if the jade is found to be white or has obvious water streaks, the whole blank will be abandoned. Even in the later stages of carving, if the jade texture in the details is found to be unsightly, the semi-finished product will be directly abandoned.
"When we make other works, we can avoid the imperfections of jade according to different forms of the works, but because the form of the Winter Olympic emblem treasure must be unified, we must ensure the purity and immaculateness of the blank when making." Zhang Tiecheng believes that the exquisite materials of the Winter Olympic Emblem Treasure are not only responsible for consumers, but also in line with the image of the Winter Olympics "ice and jade".
Ingenuity inheritance to create the Olympic symbol of Chinese culture
As early as 16 years ago, Zhang Tiecheng had an indissoluble relationship with the Olympic Games. In 2003, the emblem of the Beijing Olympic Games was released, and the jade seal with the "Chinese seal" on that side left a deep impression on the industry. And the jade seal of this "Olympic emblem treasure" is from Zhang Tiecheng's hand. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Zhang Tiecheng participated in the design and production of the sensational "Gold inlaid Jade" medal, and truly became the first person to create the Olympic symbol of Chinese jade culture.
When he participated in the design and production of the "Gold inlaid Jade" medal that year, Zhang Tiecheng felt honored and pressured. "The production of gold and jade medals, the requirements at that time were flawless. This 'flawless' concept was difficult for us to achieve when we made jade medals. Because the height of the medal left for the jade ring is only 3 mm, when polished to this thinness, the jade is very easy to crack, and any small flaws will be exposed. "In addition, the gold and jade medals should also be taken into account for the daily wear of athletes, which cannot be simply directly inlaid, and must take into account the function of anti-fall. So Zhang Tiecheng added a special anti-fall layer between the medal and the jade ring when inlaid with the jade ring, and finally after hundreds of tests, the "perfect" Olympic medal was presented to the eyes of the world.
Talking about his fate with the Olympic Games in the past sixteen years, Zhang Tiecheng was excited. "Doing jade for the Olympics is different from any work I've done before. When I watched the Olympic televised broadcast, I really burst into tears when I saw the gold and jade medals worn on the athletes, especially the Chinese athletes. After so many years of arduous trekking, all the efforts have been worth it. Zhang Tiecheng believes that jade represents the benevolence of Chinese gentlemen, and this benevolence is actually in line with the Olympic spirit. Through the stage of the Olympic Games, Chinese jade culture can be made to the world, which is the greatest affirmation of oneself.
"There is nothing remarkable about me making a work alone, the key is that through the work, I can pass on China's excellent traditional culture and make it universal." We Chinese craftsmen hope to make more contributions to the motherland. "Zhang Tiecheng's Olympic story will continue to be told with the inheritance of ingenuity."
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Reporters: Wu Lu, Zhang Cang (intern), Ji Ye, Tian Ran (intern)
Video: Wu Lu, Wang Chujie
Editors: Gao Meng, Lu Yuchen, Yu Sihui Yu, Peng Dong