During this time, Liu Zhijun had a thick copy of "History of Chinese Ceramics" on his desk, and shared the illustrated knowledge of the history of Chinese ceramics in the circle of friends every day. Liu Zhijun's achievements in the field of ceramics are obvious to all, but the 53-year-old has no intention of stopping, and recently he has found a new topic for himself: improving the mechanical strength of jun porcelain and making jun porcelain that does not break.
bud:
The jun porcelain of "white flowers" entered Liu Zhijun's world for the first time
Yuzhou is the capital of the Xia Dynasty, one of the "five famous porcelain" in China, the only place of production of jun porcelain, Henan Yuzhou jun porcelain because of its porcelain clay, glaze, craftsmanship and other advantages, the production of jun porcelain imagery is rich, wonderful and gorgeous, famous all over the world. At the same time, Yuzhou was also one of the four major distribution centers of Chinese medicinal materials in the country during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the culture of Jun porcelain and Traditional Chinese medicine had a long history, known as "Jundu" and "Medicine Capital".
Liu Zhijun was born and raised in Yuzhou, and his pursuit and dedication to Jun porcelain in this life also sprouted here.
Liu Zhijun's father worked as a chief engineer in a Chinese medicine factory in Yuzhou, and was also a painter, doing some packaging design. When he was a child, Liu Zhijun often followed his father to the pharmaceutical factory. "When I was about five or six years old, the pharmaceutical factory built a workshop to dig the foundation, and I heard the adults say that a lot of porcelain was dug out, and I followed my father to the scene to see." Liu Zhijun recalled that in the eyes of children, the porcelain piece was a piece of "white flower", "Later, the land in the workshop was identified as a Junguan kiln, and I remember that I also picked up some porcelain fragments, and later when I was studying, I painted a piece of debris that I picked up when I was a child." ”
In 1974, the site of the Jun porcelain kiln excavated near Juntai in Yuzhou was confirmed as the Northern Song Dynasty official kiln, and various uncertain theories of the era of the production of Chinese Jun kilns for a long time were confirmed, and Chinese Jun porcelain was confirmed to originate in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Studied by famous masters,
Liu Zhijun was rated as a great craftsman in the Central Plains
Once, Liu Zhijun's father's pharmaceutical factory wanted to design a jun porcelain bottle to hold the ejiao blood cream produced in the factory. During that time, Liu Zhijun followed his father to the Jun Porcelain Factory to sample and pick up the goods, so he slowly went from contacting Jun Porcelain to gradually liking it later, "It feels like it is seducing you to do this." Liu Zhijun said with a smile.
Later, Liu Zhijun, who was admitted to the university, immersed himself in the study of arts and crafts, and after graduation, he devoted himself to the art of jun porcelain, successively studied with the famous ceramic titan Zhang Shouzhi, the "Chinese ceramic titan" Yang Wenxian, etc., and became the closed disciple of Mr. Jin Peizhang, the "jun porcelain taidou".
Liu Zhijun's works have won more than 100 international and domestic awards, including the gold medal of the "Hundred Flowers Award", the highest award of Chinese arts and crafts, and the two gold awards of the 10th China Ceramic Art and Design Innovation Competition. Liu Zhijun was also named the National Senior Arts and Crafts Artist, The Master of Chinese Ceramic Design Art, the Model Worker of Henan Province, the Great Craftsman of Zhongyuan Province, the Best Designer of Henan Province and the Outstanding Youth of Central Plains Ceramic Culture, won the Outstanding Contribution Award of Ceramic Art of Henan Province, and was rated as one of the Top Ten Influential Figures of Zhongyuan Ceramic Culture Industry.
burnish:
Make a tea cup with the spirit of a craftsman, pursue light and thin, "not broken"
A few years ago, Mr. Zhang Shouzhi once said to Liu Zhijun: "It is rare to be able to make a cup into a flower in the Chinese ceramic industry." After that, Liu Zhijun put his focus on the process of the cup. In 2014, he began to design and create "Zhi Jun Dian".
Earlier, most of the jun porcelain in people's impression was relatively rough and bulky, and how to make the tea cup light and beautiful was something that Liu Zhijun had been considering. The shape design should be ergonomic, its size should be in line with the curvature of the person holding the cup, and the rim should bring the best comfort to the lips... When designing the masterpiece "Zhi Jun dian", these details cannot be ignored. And only the tea utensils are far from enough, each type of tea is suitable for which cup, how many milliliters of tea cup containers to make people better taste the tea aroma, these are also full of learning.
Recently, Liu Zhijun proposed a new topic to himself: to improve the hardness of jun porcelain and make jun porcelain that does not break.
Liu Zhijun introduced that the weight of ancient jun porcelain is generally lighter than the same volume of modern production of jun porcelain, the reason is that the raw materials used in the ancient jun porcelain are generally used after several rinses and then used, and the modern jun porcelain body production is generally directly mixed with all the raw material ball mills, for some larger porcelain, there are handling problems caused by heavy weight in the production, sales and storage process. Moreover, the existing jun porcelain mechanical strength is low, and it is easy to damage during handling, storage and exhibition.
"Dirt has character." In Liu Zhijun's view, the clay that has not been stale has a strong personality, and it will be broken when it is dropped, and how to use the current process to make jun porcelain that cannot be broken is something he has to try continuously. "In recent years, not many of our own ceramic brands have come out of the circle. The Central Plains rise up, and the wind and turmoil are led again. The world of ceramics, do not leave my name. This is what our ceramicsmiths expect. Liu Zhijun said.
"Nine out of ten kilns." The firing of porcelain is difficult to grasp, porcelain into the kiln before firing to go through dozens of processes, a small action is not passed, the overall failure. Being able to endure loneliness, withstand failure, and do one thing to the extreme is Liu Zhijun's understanding of craftsmen, and it is also his definition of himself in so many titles.
Editor-in-charge: Tao Jiyan | Review: Li Zhen | Director: Wan Junwei