Craftsmanship
In the storefront of Guiyinzhuang, Ethnic Culture Street, Songtao Autonomous County, Tongren City, there are a variety of silver jewelry, silver bracelets, silver hats, silver pots, etc. Are exquisite and meticulous, and these Miao silver jewelry works are from the hands of Long Song, the inheritor of intangible culture in Tongren City.
In 1984, Long Song was born in a Miao family in Ganxi Village, Shichang Township, Songtao Miao Autonomous County, and his cousin Long Shaoliang was a famous silversmith in the village at that time, and his childhood made him more and more interested in silverware. After entering high school at the age of 15, Long Song began to learn the art of silver jewelry making with his cousin, and since then he has embarked on the road of inheriting national skills.
Long Song's love for silver jewelry is emanating from the depths of his heart, in order to make his own silver jewelry more design sense, after graduating from high school, Long Song deliberately chose to study art design professional schools, carefully studied art design theory courses during the school period, returned home during the holiday to carry out silver jewelry production practice, accumulated over time, he has also mastered the silver jewelry production process, and often proposed some new ideas to his cousin.
Over the past few years, Longsong has mastered dozens of tedious processes such as silver melting, forging, carving, filigree, inlaying, and welding. There have also been breakthroughs in yin and yang carving, such as bracelets, silver pots, etc., he does not need to draw drawings first, he can also carve smooth, exquisite patterns.
As his silver jewelry production skills became more and more mature, Longsong began to turn his attention to the market, inheriting the skills of the older generation, innovating silver jewelry categories, keeping up with the concept of modern life consumption, market-oriented, and producing each silver jewelry with strict requirements for themselves and striving for excellence. Usually, when he came across someone in the surrounding market town making silver jewelry on the spot, he went to collect and sort out various styles of traditional silver jewelry patterns and crafts. Through repeated study and practice, he has mastered a variety of traditional Miao silver jewelry techniques and gathered the strengths of all the families to form a unique artistic style.
After becoming a family in 2008, Long Song started a family-style silver jewelry workshop. His wife Yang Lingli is also a silver jewelry craftsman, long song is responsible for calcination, hammering and polishing in the work, and his wife is responsible for weaving flowers, filling silk, cleaning, sales, etc. The couple divides labor and cooperates. Relying on the silver jewelry handicraft left by his ancestors, he slowly won a good reputation, and the customers who came to him to make silver jewelry every day were endless, the products were in short supply, and the days of Longsong and his wife were becoming more and more prosperous.
With the growing reputation of Guiyinzhuang, Longsong's skills and innovations have also been recognized. In order to inherit and develop national folk handicraft products and carry forward the spirit of national folk craftsmen, he began to recruit apprentices. Many private enterprises, individual enthusiasts, teachers and students of colleges and universities have come to practice and learn from him the handicraft of silver jewelry making, and he has also trained a batch of technical backbone talents for some enterprises.
In 2018, Guiyinzhuang was listed as the provincial "National Folk Handicraft Institute" and became a teaching and practice base for traditional skills of Guizhou University, Soochow University and Tongren College, attracting more teachers and students of the Department of Social Design to learn handmade silver jewelry making techniques, and Longsong also carried out handmade silver jewelry skills training and publicized traditional skills from time to time in his village, so that everyone could build a beautiful home with one skill, learn something, and build a better home.
Whether it is an apprentice, an intern or a handicraft enthusiast, as long as he is willing to learn, Long Song will teach them one by one, and he also wants to let more people participate in the protection and development of the national handicraft industry through this way, so that traditional skills can be inherited, and then promote the sustainable development of the economy.
Photo/Text Reporter Li Jingcheng
Editor/Wang Jianglan
Editor/Liao Xun
Editor/Wu Qian, Xia Jin
Posted/Xu Ting