Li Yuanzhuo: Leave some of the best years and craftsmanship to yourself

A cloud pattern carved on the hinge of a Cabinet in the Qing Dynasty

Miniature furniture made according to the "Ming-style Furniture Appreciation"

What kind of story does a piece of wood have? The b station up master "a carpenter who can shoot videos" gave a variety of answers. For half a year, Li Yuanzhuo, a 48-year-old Shanghainese, continued to share many of his miniature furniture works in his video account "A Carpenter Who Can Shoot Videos", which attracted the attention of netizens and was forwarded and liked by the official Weibo of the People's Daily.

In the past 20 years, Li Yuanzhuo has used his spare time to produce thousands of pieces of miniature furniture and its accessories, showing the changes in furniture from the Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China. Pieces of old mahogany, yellow pear, rosewood... In his hands, he is carved into a palm-sized Chinese miniature furniture, not only that, but also teapots, pipas, porcelain bottles, bonsai and other miniature accessories also show the wisdom of ancient Chinese craftsmen. Many netizens were shocked by his craftsmanship, "This is the real god, the handiwork has nothing to say, the amount of information is still large, each part is learned" "These small ornaments look too comfortable" "Seeing these furniture utensils, a strong cultural heritage is coming to the face"... In half a year, he updated 14 videos and received more than 600,000 views.

20 years has never given up making miniature furniture, Li Yuanzhuo only for his youth promise - "really want to make a wall of furniture." In his youth, he worked in the carving factory and the Shanghai Film Studio, which helped him become the "carpenter who can shoot videos" now.

Not long ago, Li Yuanzhuo was interviewed by a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily. He said that the engraving work made him think about the efficiency of each step in advance, if there is no efficiency, it may not be possible to achieve the desire to "make furniture on one wall" in the old age, and now he shares the video in order to keep part of the best years and the best craftsmanship for himself.

A $650 book

After looking through it, I made up my mind to make a wall of furniture

In 1990, at the age of 16, Li Yuanzhuo began to formally contact mahogany carving. Recalling the decision of that year, he can only explain it by "chance". At that time, he saw that the Shanghai Art Carving Factory, which was affiliated with the state-owned enterprise, offered a carving training class, and he received two years of training after signing up.

During the training, Li Yuanzhuo came across a book and was instantly brought into the world of the beauty of ancient Chinese furniture. "At that time, I was not familiar with traditional Chinese furniture, and once I went to the teacher's design room with my classmates and accidentally opened Mr. Wang Shixiang's "Ming-style Furniture Appreciation". That was the first time I saw the circle chair and the official hat chair, and I was shocked in an instant, and I realized that there were such beautiful chairs in the world. Although it is Ming-style furniture, it is also very modern. Although there is no Qing Dynasty dragon painting phoenix, the overall feeling is both simple and simple, but also looks very ethereal. ”

After 30 years, Li Yuanzhuo can still clearly remember his feelings at that time, and he still remembers the book vividly, he introduced: "650 yuan! That book was so expensive to sell at the time, it was published by Hong Kong's Sanlian Bookstore in the 1980s, and it was almost the ceiling of the furniture industry. The book has a detailed description of Ming-style furniture, as well as a large number of drawings and photos. After reading it, he said to the classmates around him, "I really want to make a wall of furniture." A short sentence, not so much about listening to his classmates as about himself, he kept this similar promise in mind.

Two years later, Li Yuanzhuo entered the carving factory, mainly responsible for drawing furniture drawings. For example, he said, if a factory wants to make a 1.1-meter-high chair, he has to reduce the size of the large furniture and draw a set of three views on a sheet of A3 paper with an A3 sheet of 11 centimeters. Through this work, Li Yuanzhuo clearly understood the structure of the furniture, grasped what firmware they are made of, and how they can be connected to each other. In Li Yuanzhuo's view, the furniture painted on the drawings about 10 centimeters high can also be called miniature furniture, which is the first step for him to contact miniature furniture.

Since then, Li Yuanzhuo has begun to make miniature furniture, also out of "chance". "At that time, our factory mainly made mahogany furniture and mahogany pieces, and the materials used were very good, and there was even some rosewood. However, I found that after making the large furniture, the rest of the small materials were thrown directly into the boiler as garbage, and there was no one to manage these small materials. I felt a pity, so I slowly gathered up the small materials and began to make miniature furniture, which was my beginning. After that, I will also specially purchase some wood, for example, I made a 12 cm high chair, and the material fee of Huanghuali cost more than 1,000 pieces. ”

Li Yuanzhuo remembered the promise, but he also knew that his home in Shanghai was too small to put so much furniture. Fortunately, the beauty of traditional Chinese furniture is diverse. "Folk homes have a unique and simple beauty, and the emperor's furniture has a gorgeous and complex beauty, although the world is different, but each has its own beauty. Rosewood has a graceful and luxurious beauty, and rosewood has the beauty of a literati atmosphere, not to mention the different evolutions of various dynasties... I can't own all of this furniture, so I can only shrink the furniture with the convenience of being in the carving factory, which is one way I can have them. ”

The crew's art assistant

Sculpting taught me that I had to think carefully about the next step

In 1997, after working in a carving factory for five years, Li Yuanzhuo was introduced by a friend to work in the Shanghai Film Studio. With his excellent hands-on ability, he is mainly responsible for the work of props in the crew.

Li Yuanzhuo once worked as an art assistant in the crew of the 98th edition of "Sanmao Wanderer", mainly responsible for adjusting props according to the shooting situation on the spot. "I remember very clearly, the lead actor Meng Zhichao was 12 years old at the time, I was 24 years old, and we were both tigers. Also, it was particularly hot that summer. Li Yuanzhuo said with a smile.

However, what impressed Li Yuanzhuo the most was the production of bronze props from the Warring States period. At that time, the teacher of the Stage Art Department of the Shanghai Theater Academy taught him to make a bronze ding with foam, such as carving on the foam, then gluing the parts, applying paint and gold powder to create a metallic texture... He believes that the logic of making props is very similar to that of making furniture, that is, "solving problems through tools and techniques".

He explains: "First of all, the production of age-sensitive props and furniture requires a deep understanding of traditional Chinese culture, and secondly, through the corresponding tools and technologies to make, then tools and technologies become a variable carrier, in order to solve the problem, we can also change some of our tools and technologies." Later, I did the same thing when I did shooting, how to shoot and edit, it was to solve one problem after another. ”

Soon after, Li Yuanzhuo left the Shanghai Film Studio to do documentaries, and also participated in the filming of the CCTV documentary "Chinese Image Fangzhi" and learned video editing. He was deeply touched by the experience of shooting and editing, and he felt that media production was very different from his previous work habits. "Whether it is pre-shooting shots or post-editing, it is mainly computer operation, and these operation steps are reversible. For example, when I do the seventh step, I can archive first, do not need to consider whether the next step is feasible, if not feasible, go back to the seventh step to solve the problem, as long as the archive can continue to solve the previous problem. But not in real life. ”

He still uses carving as an example, and carpentry work requires careful presupposition of the next step, otherwise, it is possible that every previous step needs to be re-done, and this mode of thinking has a profound impact on Li Yuanzhuo. "Although we now rely on computers to drive our work, I still think ahead about the efficiency of each step. Without efficiency, I might not be able to 'make furniture on one wall' until I was old. I was busy at work and did an extremely time-consuming manual production. Since I want both, I have to be more efficient. Li Yuanzhuo mentioned the promise again.

20 years of persistence

Good craftsmanship is about cost, including time

Qiangjin, in the Shanghai dialect, describes people who do things persistently, which is a quality that Li Yuanzhuo believes he has.

Li Yuanzhuo has never given up making miniature furniture, which is a kind of "strength". He describes himself as practicing, every time he makes a piece of furniture, it is a challenge, from simple to complex, from easy to difficult, and his production process is becoming more and more skilled. With the experience of feedback to himself after each production, he gradually has a clearer understanding of the difficulties of production, such as the difficulty of the tool is not to use particularly hard steel, medium carbon steel is more suitable for carving mahogany; or carving to follow the grain of wood, and to accurately measure, it is possible to overturn the entire work if it is lost.

Before each production, Li Yuanzhuo will still habitually think deeply, and he will make prejudgments about the production cycle. At first, he needed 28 parts to make an official hat chair and spent about 20 days of spare time to complete. After that, as the difficulty increases, the more difficulties he faces, the longer it takes him.

At present, one of Li Yuanzhuo's longest-consuming furniture works is a miniature model of a pair of dragon chairs in the Forbidden City, which he initially expected to be completed in a month, but it took 5 months to complete. "The chairs in the Forbidden City are very complex, with many dragon motifs, not only on the backrests, but also with carved dragons on many structures. For example, the armrests and backrests, the top of each hook is a small faucet, so you must first make a small faucet part and then assemble it. So cumbersome, and so small, even if there is a hair-like slit, the vision will be tilted. Li Yuanzhuo introduced.

Li Yuanzhuo still remembered the state of mind when he was making it, and always felt that the next month could be completed, but after January and January, until the third month, he told himself not to worry, not to be affected by the mentality, and finally slowly finished. Such a torturous production process is not "only once", once, Li Yuanzhuo also had a painful feeling when making a small cabinet, he recalled: "At that time, there was a carving of the pattern on the loose page of the cabinet to be reproduced, and the cabinet door also had a hinge, the hinge played a fixed role, and there was a decorative beauty, but such a small hinge also had to carve a lot of cloud patterns on it, it was impossible to find someone else to do it, but I could not buy such parts, I could only do it myself." It is necessary to have both vigor and brains to solve problems and overcome difficulties to make things, which not only improve their own ability, but also have special feelings. And a good craftsman is to do no matter the cost, including the cost of time. ”

In 2013, Li Yuanzhuo was nearly forty years old and finally fulfilled the promise he made to himself. In total, he made more than 200 pieces of miniature furniture, including purple clay pots, ancient books, porcelain bottles, musical instruments, bird cages and other various miniature accessories, the total number of about 1,000 pieces. "Relieved," he was in at the time, and then he explained: "After fulfilling the promise, I let go of all my thoughts. I didn't do anything for three or four years, and some people around me didn't know I was making miniature furniture because I put it down. ”

In fact, after Li Yuanzhuo was 30 years old, he found that the reproduction of miniature furniture was no longer attractive to himself, and gradually did not want to continue, but for the sake of the commitment of his youth, he still insisted. He believes that the production to the later stage is only an increase in quantity, the significance is not too big, always feel that those works do not have their own DNA. "Sometimes I feel that simple reproduction is lifeless, so I didn't continue after I finished it. Then one day, I found that the books in the middle of the shelf that were easy to access were no longer reference books about furniture, but were placed more and more down. I think this proves that the matter of making furniture has been marginalized by me. ”

A carpenter who can shoot videos

You can't just photograph furniture, but also match the beauty of Chinese culture

After that, Li Yuanzhuo began to play with hand strings and slowly paid attention to architectural culture such as temples. "I'm not a religious person, I'm just interested in architectural culture, and I rarely go out after the epidemic, so I want to share the scenery I shot before." Li Yuanzhuo preached.

In October 2021, Li Yuanzhuo became a video blogger called "a carpenter who can shoot videos". He brought together two important experiences in his life, "Carpenter" and "Can Shoot Videos", and began to produce video works with his own DNA. After the release of his first video "The Story of a Piece of Wood", it attracted the attention of B station netizens and has reached 330,000 views so far. The woodcut miniature temple is more complex than the miniature furniture that Li Yuanzhuo has previously made, and the video introduces: "14 months, 598 parts, 239 words, 12 Buddha statues... A temple that you can take with you. From the unknown, to knowing, to collecting, to designing, to making, from waiting to loving..."

The video shows the process of the transformation of a piece of wood, and many netizens are shocked, "The quality of this video will be updated at least 5 years!" "This is the real god, there is nothing to say about the handiwork, the amount of information is still large, and every part is learning." "Watching your video, it doesn't look like you made it yourself, it feels like the quality is so high, and the mirror is very good." ...... Li Yuanzhuo also responded to netizens in the comment area: "I shot it myself, there is no team, and the whole set of videos also lasted for a year." A lot of material is needed in the middle, and it must be synchronized with the production, and at the same time, you need to write your own copy, the final production, the picture, the copywriting... So I need to edit instantly and make constant adjustments, which I know best. In fact, there are friends who can shoot in friendship, but the cycle is too long, and they also want to take a video of their own perspective and mentality. ”

Li Yuanzhuo initially only wanted to do a record and share, never thought that his video could catch fire, since it aroused the attention of netizens, he wanted to continue to update and maintain the account. As for what kind of content to update, Li Yuanzhuo listened to the advice of netizens, "In the first video, I mentioned furniture, and netizens expressed their desire to see furniture. So, I thought about taking a picture of the furniture, and I shot "A Group of Rosewood Miniature Furniture", "Ancient Deep Boudoir: Rose Chair", "The Fun of Playing with BoGu Shelf"... There are also netizens who want to see my tools for making furniture, so I filmed an issue of "Carpenter's Eighteen Weapons" and so on. And they were very enthusiastic about reminding me of the precautions for marking originals and updates, and even met like-minded friends. Li Yuanzhuo introduced.

Now, he can shoot one video a day, but he doesn't want to make updating the video a burden for himself. He continues to use the logic left behind when sculpting to video updates: to do things carefully, to solve problems that arise. Li Yuanzhuo attaches great importance to the traditional Chinese beauty presented in the video, and he believes that shooting furniture can not only be a single item, but to match the different beauties in Chinese culture and integrate them to make the video vivid. "Wooden tables must be paired with miniature books, miniature bonsai, purple clay pots, bird cages or musical instruments, and some bamboo or red coral colors on the rockery to decorate... Each small collocation can show the beauty of a different aspect of Chinese culture, and the picture is richer. ”

At the same time, Li Yuanzhuo also studied the shooting method, "Usually shooting with pushing, pulling, shaking, moving, but shooting miniature furniture, can not use normal shooting methods." In order to create a sense of time, I basically use light to express, let the light move, and use light and shadow to show the details of the furniture. Alternatively, you can use the method of grid-by-frame animation to make a set of furniture appear and combine piece by piece. ”

At present, Li Yuanzhuo wants to continue to make some objects that he is interested in, hoping that the video can record and share his own process for netizens to witness. He said: "I want to keep some of the best years and the best craftsmanship for myself, and only I can experience such happiness." ”

Text/Reporter Han Shirong Courtesy photo/Li Yuanzhuo