Wu Shaojie is creating cultural and creative products related to the Year of the Tiger. Photo by reporter Liu Yiming
Tianshan network reporter Liu Yiming
On January 19, half a day of the employees' holiday, Wu Shaojie's soft ceramic painted sculpture studio ushered in a rare quiet time. Putting on a Piece of Xinjiang music and closing his eyes, Wu Shaojie recalled the looks and movements of The Kazakh herders on the grassland when they sang and danced in front of the felt house. At the end of the song, he opened his eyes, sat up straight, picked up the unfinished work, took out the carving knife, and carved it on the face of the figure of less than 5 centimeters, with a very small range, and the deep eyebrows, nose bridge, and mouth of the character gradually became clear.
"The character is based on a Kazakh uncle who plays the piano. Listening to the music, I returned to the lively scene of that day, which made my thinking clearer when I was creating. Wu Shaojie said rubbing his sore neck.
Wu Shaojie, a 29-year-old soft pottery faience craftsman, has focused on combining painted sculptures with Xinjiang elements in recent years, and his works have won many awards from the autonomous region and the national level.
Wu Shaojie's soft pottery faience sculpture "Daolang Mai Xi Refu". Photo by reporter Liu Yiming
The two shelves in the studio are filled with Wu Shaojie's works: mixed noodles, pilaf, bread and baked buns, folk artists playing twelve muqams, people trading in the Hotan Jade Market, vendors selling along the streets of Kashgar's ancient city... In these works, not only the characters come to life, but also the sesame seeds on the buns and the buttons and embroidery on the clothes are vivid and vivid.
This kind of kung fu is the result of the past 10 years of study and hard practice. At the age of 18, Wu Shaojie came to Xinjiang from Henan to study arts and crafts design at Urumqi Vocational University.
"The professionalism is very suitable for my appetite. I loved to pinch mud when I was young, and I had some art skills. Wu Shaojie said that because of his love, he worked harder than others. In addition to daily practice, he also went to many handicraft companies to learn a variety of clay sculpture making techniques and techniques. After graduation, he went to Beijing to learn the art of painted sculpture in depth.
At the beginning of 2017, Wu Shaojie returned to Urumqi and decided to work deeply in the soft ceramic color molding industry.
"At that time, it was popular to grow succulents, which became my first work." Wu Shaojie said that during that time, he went to the Pearl Flower Market every day to observe succulents, and also bought a lot of them to watch and do at home.
Wu Shaojie is making succulents. Courtesy of Wu Shaojie
"For the past two years, I have been teaching or making succulents, and my skills are getting more and more mature. But then I realized that I needed to break through and grow. Wu Shaojie said that after some thinking, he decided to do some works with cultural heritage and Xinjiang characteristics.
The ancient city of Kashgar, the Narathi grassland, the jade trading market in Hotan, the Turpan grape ditch... Since the beginning of 2019, Wu Shaojie has collected wind in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, feeling the historical culture and humanistic customs of the land under his feet.
Everywhere he went, he spent a few days in the library, looking up materials and learning about the local folk culture and history. "I want to accumulate professional knowledge and materials, so that my works can better show the characteristics of Xinjiang, so that everyone can understand Xinjiang and fall in love with Xinjiang through my works." Wu Shaojie said.
Wu Shaojie's work "Twelve Mu Kam". Courtesy of Wu Shaojie
Then, he created a series of works such as "Twelve Mu Kam", "Hetian Yu Bazaar", "Ancient City Bazaar", and "Happy Homeland". Among them, "Twelve Mukam" won the gold medal of the 2020 "Golden Phoenix" Innovative Product Design Competition at the 55th National Handicraft Fair.
The work "Ancient City Bazaar" is also Wu Shaojie's proud work. It shows the lively bazaar scene in the ancient city of Kashgar, and embodies the scene of the rich, happy and happy life of the people living here. The entire work is two meters long and takes half a year.
"When creating the image of a Uighur aunt who was sold, I spent 3 nights studying the character expressions, carving and firing them 4 times, just to restore the rich and joyful feelings of the characters." Wu Shaojie said.
The skill is perfected in such a series of polishing and practice.
"To do one thing well with my life's energy is what I understand as 'ingenuity.'" Wu Shaojie said, "I hope to create more works this year to show the beauty of Xinjiang." I will continue to be honest and innovative, and drive more people to like and inherit the color sculpture skills. ”