Xie Qiang is "painting" on "silver paper". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Wenjing
Lanzhou, 26 Feb (Xinhua) -- Reporters Zhang Wenjing and Guo Gang kept their eyes peeled and their hearts were undistracted. On a piece of silver as thin as a cicada's wing, the hammer in Xie Qiang's hand gently tapped the copper nail, slowly moving along the plum blossom trajectory outlined on the silver surface, making a "clanging" crisp sound.
In the ten-square-meter house, he is accompanied by various silver jewelry processing tools all day long, and music that makes him feel calm at work. Two months later, the silver painting with the theme of "Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum" can be freshly baked.
"Three-dimensional painting" on silver 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm thick has been done for nearly 10 years at the age of 29, while his 56-year-old father, Xie Yanjiang, has been doing it for 44 years.
"Father and son soldiers". The father and son from Longxi County, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, regard traditional silverworking techniques as their favorite. Using silver as a creative carrier, they use traditional craftsmanship, hand-created and integrated modern concepts to produce various types of silver jewelry and silver paintings.
Xie Yanjiang studied art with his father at the age of 12. With his skillful skills, he was rated as the representative inheritor of the traditional silverware making skills of Longxi, a municipal intangible cultural heritage. He said: "Handmade silver jewelry is not only a work of art, but also a historical inheritance and cultural memory. ”
Inheriting silverware processing skills, cultivating successors, and carrying forward traditional Chinese culture are Xie Yanjiang's original intentions. He believes that only if more people join the ranks will the craft not disappear.
Xie Qiang (right) learns the art of "painting" from his father, Xie Yanjiang (left). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Wenjing
A hook and a painting to see the ingenuity, a hammer to show the skill. In the ear, Xie Qiang also deeply liked the processing of silver jewelry. Xie Qiang was shocked to see the silver melted in the furnace and then magically processed by his father's skillful hands, which could be shaped into a variety of exquisite works of art.
"My grandfather and father spent their entire lives engaged in silverware making. I grew up with the 'clanging' sound of tapping. Xie Qiang told reporters that his father intended to cultivate him and sent him to learn art when he was young, and he gladly accepted.
The art foundation provided an aesthetic foundation for Xie Qiang to devote himself to the silverware production process, and the four years of undergraduate study at Lanzhou Jiaotong University opened his eyes and broadened his thinking.
Xie Qiang said: "China attaches great importance to the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, and has introduced many policies to enhance the vitality of inheritance. After graduating from college, I am willing to contribute my youth to pass on this skill. ”
"The sun and the moon rise in the furnace, and the hammer sets the knot." For a long time, Xie Qiang has been accustomed to sitting alone in the processing room and enjoying the pleasure of polishing silverware. Painting on "silver paper" is not only a challenge to skill, but also a test of mental tempering and endurance.
Over the years, Mr. Xie said, his father and he had created hundreds of silver jewelry artworks, most of which were custom-made. Compared to machine-made "quick-track" crafts, they found that people prefer original handmade artwork that shows individuality, because the handmade artwork is integrated into the painstaking efforts of the craftsman, and each work is unique.
The art is endless. What makes the father and son most proud is that in recent years, they have continuously innovated and created silver paintings, introducing "Chinese style" elements such as bergamot, surname totem, and peony into the painting, which has attracted the attention of many young people.
Xie Yanjiang's silver painting with the theme of bergamot as the theme is processed. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Wenjing
Xie Qiang said that silver paintings have both decorative functions and collection value, which meets the needs of young people.
There are talented people in the Jiangshan generation. In Xie Yanjiang's view, young people have flexible minds and quick thinking, which is conducive to the inheritance of traditional silver processing skills. On weekdays, he is also keen to share this skill with young people. As long as someone comes to study, he will teach it without reservation.
Xie Qiang said: "The protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage needs to be relayed from generation to generation, and I am willing to be a torch bearer and carry it forward." ”