Before the middle of the last century, there was an old "tin street" in Yunnan, named after the large number of people who made tin utensils at that time, in a small street less than 50 meters long, there were more than 40 workshops of tin handicrafts, they were doing and selling, from morning to night, the small street was a sound of pulling bellows, knocking tin platinum, and selling goods.
Because the tin craftsmen continue to sum up their experience on the basis of their predecessors, the varieties of tin utensils produced are gradually diversified, and the artistic value is also increasing. In addition to meeting the domestic market, these tin products are also sold to France, Japan, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand and other countries and regions. In 1978, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the first tin arts and crafts factory was established, and the production of tin crafts was incorporated into the national system.
This ancient skill has been inherited and developed by generations of tin craftsmen, and with the support of the world's highest purity tin smelting technology, it has begun to develop in the direction of industrialization. However, due to the limited breakthrough of the process level, the development is still faltering. It was not until 14 years later, with the emergence of the "spot tin" product, that the real peak moment was ushered in - the era of spot tin. In this revolutionary process of grafting ban tin into works of art, we have to mention another person: Lai Qingguo.
Born in 1963, Lai Qingguo is a native of the old man, since childhood love painting, especially love arts and crafts, from the 1980s, Lai Qingguo really began to contact tin products, and entered the tin art world. Opportunities always come only to those with keen vision, in the late 1980s, when the former Kunming Precious Metals Research Institute scientific and technological means to develop a new material spot tin, Lai Qingguo immediately realized that spot tin is a special tin process, a physical conversion process of high-purity tin surface.
Tin products after the milling and car light after the crystallization will be destroyed, after recrystallization and process spot treatment, the surface of the tin re-produce crystallization plaque, so that the surface of the pewter presents a black, white, gray different brightness and multi-level change of the effect, so that the tin handicraft more exquisite, glittering.
The emergence of spot tin has completely changed the visual effect of tin, making tin crafts have unique artistic expression, and it is an iconic cultural symbol in the historical development process of tin crafts in China. Today, among the many pieces of Chinese tin handicrafts collected by the National Museum of China, there are three works by Lai Qingguo ("12 Jixiang Treasures Tea Tin Storage", "Nine Elephants Wonderful Wine Utensils", and "Four Elephants Tuo Tea Xibao"), one of which is "Twelve Jixiang Pu'er Tea Treasures Tin Storage", which is finely made of spotted tin materials, and the surface of the works is elegantly patterned. It is understood that the use of its treasured high-grade Pu'er tea can achieve the dual effect of ventilation and sealing and preservation.
Lai Qingguo is considered to be "the person who gives life and soul to the tin handicrafts", and with the achievements of the tin crafts, he became the only national master of arts and crafts in the domestic tin craft industry in 2007. In the old town of Datun, it takes only 20 minutes to drive through the Xidu Tunnel from the city to reach the modern tin craft industrial park founded by Lai Qingguo. The park is a series of ingeniously designed buildings – European, Chinese, Chinese and Western, staggered, flowers blooming on the green space, and a small train – built in exactly the 1:1 ratio of the original Bishi railway operating vehicles – as if preparing to sail into the distance. The design elements of all this embody plenty of "old taste" everywhere.
For more than 100 years, hasn't it been such an inland trade town that integrates Chinese and Western cultures? In the spacious and bright exhibition hall, a world of tin handicrafts is on display: from the ancient tin craft lampstand to the modern tin tea set; from the tiny cups to the large craft collection, all of which make people marvel at the ingenuity of the designers and the ingenuity of the makers. Each piece of spot tin here is manufactured to the highest standards of high-quality pewter, and each product uses 99.9% high-purity tin and 0.1% copper and antimony produced by the old city.
The production of each piece of Chinese spot tin and tin handicrafts is based on the traditional exquisite craftsmanship of tin craftsmen for more than 300 years and combined with modern high-tech technology, which is refined by molding, fine casting, flattening, grinding, punching, welding, manual polishing, spotting and oxidation resistance corrosion treatment, quality inspection, packaging and other dozens of processes. The luxurious temperament of each piece of tin and the unique colorful texture effect and the soft luster of the longer and longer are breathtaking.