I met Zhang Xiaoyan, a jun porcelain artist, and witnessed Zhang Xiaoyan and more than 30 outstanding young jun porcelain artists such as Zhang Xiaoyan at the receiving ceremony of Master Yang Xiaofeng the year before. After the acceptance ceremony, Master Yang Xiaofeng's disciples showed their jun porcelain artworks, among which Zhang Xiaoyan's jun porcelain pot instantly attracted the author. The strict body of this pot, exquisite production, and warm red glaze not only allowed the author to see the ingenious combination of traditional art and modern aesthetics, but also formed an acquaintance with the creator since then.
When I first formally visited Zhang Xiaoyan, I thought he was a young man who was not good at words, but when it came to jun porcelain creation experience, he seemed to have changed as a person, and suddenly opened the conversation box. Zhang Xiaoyan has been influenced by jun porcelain culture since he was a child, and as a native of The Gods, he has a strong interest in the creation of jun porcelain. In 2005, Zhang Xiaoyan entered the Kongjiajun kiln to experience and learn the traditional production processes such as jun porcelain grouting, blanking, and modeling. In 2009, he came to Yang Zhijun kiln to work, and followed the national master Mr. Yang Zhi to learn the skills of jun porcelain production and firing. During this period, Zhang Xiaoyan was down-to-earth and diligent, sensitive and studious, and was deeply appreciated by the master.
In September 2020, Zhang Xiaoyan successively visited Yang Xiaofeng, a representative inheritor of Henan Province, and Yang Xiaoyong, a master of ceramic art in Henan Province, a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project "Jun Porcelain Firing Technique", to learn jun porcelain hand-pulled blanks and jun porcelain firing techniques for their teachers, and conducted more in-depth research on traditional furnace jun glaze and traditional jun red glaze. Later, he founded Zhang Xiaoyan's personal studio (Furnace Huayuan Jun Porcelain Art). In 2019, the Ningcaitang Jun Kiln was organized, specializing in the firing techniques of furnace jun and traditional jun red glaze.
At the beginning, Zhang Xiaoyan's fired jun porcelain works were basically based on ornaments, and later began to fire jun porcelain use vessels - tea sets due to market audiences and other reasons.
"The firing process of the user is not the same as that of the spectator." In the exhibition hall of the Jun kiln in NingcaiTang, Zhang Xiaoyan picked up a jun porcelain pot and seriously introduced, "This kind of jun porcelain teapot has a thin tire and thick glaze, and the thickness of the body and glaze is difficult to control." "Since 2011, Zhang Xiaoyan began to fire the furnace Jun, in 2014 research and firing traditional coal glaze (belongs to the personal characteristic glaze), when the beginning of the attempt to burn jun porcelain teapot, often appeared glaze thick flow glaze phenomenon, and later found that jun porcelain tea set for a long time will have the phenomenon of fried tires, after years of repeated glaze testing and experimental work, finally overcome many technical problems.
"Those who have established great things in the past will not only have supernatural talents, but also have the will to persevere." In the process of research and exploration of Jun Porcelain, Zhang Xiaoyan invested a lot of energy and financial resources for a period of time, without any gains, and even his livelihood was difficult to maintain during the period. In desperation, at the beginning of 2018, he followed the people in the same village to work in the south, during the part-time work, it was still difficult to give up jun porcelain, after many entanglements, he finally adhered to his ideals and regained confidence with the support of his family to embark on the road of kiln again.
"At that time, I soaked around the studio and the kiln all day, and it was common for me to forget to eat at the end of the day, I never slept a single night, I was really intoxicated, and sometimes I even dreamed of burning the kiln!" When talking about his experience of firing jun porcelain tea sets, Zhang Xiaoyan was quite emotional.
Over the past ten years, Zhang Xiaoyan has accumulated a lot of practical experience in jun porcelain. From the raw materials of jun porcelain to grouting molding, he believes that the details determine success or failure, especially in the process of spinning blanks, showing the spirit of craftsmanship in excellence. Whether it is grouting or pulling embryos, he has been meticulous, "giving each work a spirituality, and the whole artifact can be brought to life." Zhang Xiaoyan said seriously.
Zhang Xiaoyan's furnace jun works are mainly traditional vessel types, such as gooseneck bottles, Guanyin bottles, jade pot spring, plum bottles, appreciation bottles, etc., the glaze color is simple and elegant, with green tones as the main body, orchid, red, gold, purple mixed in between, giving people a long-term, simple, dignified and profound feeling; his traditional jun red glaze works, using the old state-owned Jun porcelain second factory coal kiln glaze, with the gas kiln successfully fired can only be fired with coal kiln glaze effect. The glaze color of the work is thick, like jade is not jade, mainly red, flashy and vulgar, looking at it from a distance, looking closely at the qiankun and rich changes, it has been praised by merchants and people in the jun porcelain industry.
Today, 32-year-old Zhang Xiaoyan is a senior technician of national ceramic firing, a young ceramic artist, a member of the Henan Ceramic and Glass Association, and a member of the "Jun Porcelain Youth Development Committee" of Shenyuan Town. Years have never lived up to the diligent people, Zhang Xiaoyan was deeply inspired by the "four transmission spirits" of the teacher Yang Xiaofeng, not only let Jun Porcelain continue to innovate in adhering to traditional skills, adhering to the craftsman's way with a calm and independent, impetuous, practical and diligent, and meticulous work attitude, but also keep up with the pace of the times, actively move closer to the Internet, making it a convenient channel for promoting Jun porcelain culture, a powerful engine for industrial docking, so that Jun porcelain art in the field of ceramics presents a shining pearl essence. (Zhang Kunlun)