【Biography】
Fang Shiying, master of arts and crafts of Hebei Province, representative inheritor of stone shadow carving of provincial intangible cultural heritage projects. His works have won the gold medal of the "Seventh National Crafts, Tourism Products and Gifts Expo" and the gold medal of the First China Intangible Cultural Heritage Skills Exhibition, which are given to foreign dignitaries as national gifts and are treasured by major museums and art museums.
【Ingenuity Story】
A pair of copper hammers and a stone slab, in Fang Shiying's skillful hands, transformed into a series of delicate and realistic stone shadow carvings.
Stone shadow carving, as the name suggests, is an image carved on a rock, which is a traditional folk art in Wuqiao County, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province. Stone shadow carving completely relies on the size and weight of the creator's wrist strength, and uses the principle of black and white chiaroscuro imaging to form a photographic effect.
Fang Shiying was preoccupied with the creation of stone shadow carvings.
"You must stabilize it with the force of your wrist, and you can't let it displace when you hit it, and you can't make mistakes, because you can't wipe and change it." Fang Shiying held more than two pounds of copper hammer on the black stone slab with her slender wrist, the thin and dense sound was like a musical note jumping, and a series of actions flowed in Fang Shiying's hands, behind this seemingly easy operation was the basic skill she had practiced for more than thirty years.
Recalling the scene of the first contact with the stone shadow carving, Fang Shiying was still deeply impressed, "This kind of black, white and gray picture is more three-dimensional and more textured than the photo." What surprised her even more was that the whole picture was made up of countless small dots of different sizes and different densities, and these "dots" were tapped on the stone with special "needles". "I couldn't imagine how a painting could be composed of just a few tiny and dense 'dots.'" Fang Shiying, who originally liked to draw, fell in love with this magical art at first sight and began to learn it like a fascination.
"The first time I picked up the hammer, because I couldn't grasp the essentials, my fingers were sore and swollen after practicing, and my wrists couldn't be lifted." Although the learning process was arduous, Fang Shiying did not retreat and was determined to learn a model. The weight of the lower hammer is not easy to grasp, so she tries and makes mistakes again and again, and every time she strikes on the stone slab, she silently ponders the feel and strength in her heart.
Fang Shiying used a copper hammer to lightly hit the black stone slab and sprinted away.
Hard practice, need a lot of stone, can not afford to buy granite slabs, Fang Shiying will go to collect others thrown away scraps. Once, Fang Shiying picked up a piece of black tiles that were thrown away by other people's home decoration, "I tried it, although the noise was too loud when carving, it would collapse porcelain, but it didn't cost money." Fang Shiying was as if she had obtained the most precious treasure, and hurriedly searched for some as a "practice board" for her to learn the art.
Fang Shiying did not go to much school, nor did he specifically study art, but he moved forward a little bit on the road of creation with full of love. "I have to practice for more than ten hours every day, even if I lie in bed at night, I always think about which line should be clearer when creating during the day, and how to improve it to make the picture more three-dimensional." In this way, in countless failures and restarts, Fang Shiying's skills continued to improve.
Over the years, on the basis of absorbing the essence of stone carving art in the north and south, Fang Shiying has combined the optical effect of photography with the brush stroke technique of painting, and paid attention to highlighting the divine appearance and three-dimensional sense of stone shadow carving works, forming its unique characteristics. Her technique of creating stone shadow carvings has also evolved from traditional chiseling to the current three-dimensional depiction, and the color has also evolved from the traditional monochrome to today's color.
In 2013, with the unremitting efforts of Fang Shiying, Wuqiao stone shadow carving technology was included in the list of Hebei Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage, and she also became the fifth generation of inheritors of Wuqiao stone shadow carving skills.
Fang Shiying introduced his stone shadow carving works to reporters.
In September 2021, Fang Shiying Stone Shadow Carving Skill Master Studio was officially established in Shijiazhuang Information Engineering Vocational College. "Everyone has their own dreams and persistence, and my dream is to try to pass on the art of stone shadow carving." Recently, there is good news that we have been approved as a provincial master studio of the Hebei Provincial Higher Vocational Education Innovation and Development Action Plan! Speaking of the promotion of stone shadow carving skills in vocational colleges and universities, Fang Shiying could not hide his joy in his heart, "Stone shadow carving into the campus can give more and more young people the opportunity to contact, like and learn from it, and will also promote the inheritance of this intangible cultural heritage to a new level." ”
Pass on things with heart and skills. Fang Shiying takes the hammer as the pen and the stone as the paper, pays attention to details, pursues perfection, and uses patience and rigor, focus and perseverance to carve life and inherit the skills. (Great Wall Network Jiyun client reporter Wu Yusec)