After a heavy rain, the birds and flowers in the 1980 Science and Technology Cultural Industrial Park in Longhua District turned right along the central pool of the park, and there were many creative studios such as hand-poured coffee, flower hand-made, and cat café experience, which were full of literary and artistic atmosphere. After a short walk, we came to Yimu Workshop, located at No. 103, Building 6, in the park, which was also the destination of our visit.
In the workshop, the faint woody fragrance left by the warm log shavings makes people involuntarily calm down, and various tools such as planers, saws, and drill bits are placed on the walls, and some unfinished works are scattered on lathes and workbenches; As far as the eye can see, there are all kinds of wood art, small tanks, small trucks, music boxes, small airplanes and other toy ornaments, rings, bracelets and other kinds of wood art trinkets and small furniture, all with a lively and simple temperament, hidden in a hidden space, waiting for visitors to discover and play......
Wu Bicheng
Wu Bicheng, the owner of this workshop, is a "post-95". Since he came here in November last year, he has drawn and designed the construction by himself, and spent two months to create this wood art world by himself.
Live a creative "carpenter's life"
"The firing principle of a wooden gun is the same as that of a real gun, after pulling the bolt, aim at three points and one line, and fire at the target; The idle toy car in the children's house is dismantled, and we redesign a main body for it, which can be transformed into a lunar rover...... "In the workshop, Wu Bicheng explained to us the design concept of those fun woodworks in the workshop, and talked about his carpentry dream.
For Wu Bicheng, becoming a "carpenter" is a coincidence. Wu Bicheng studied industrial design in college, and when he was a sophomore, the school just set up a professional carpentry laboratory, and he signed up for the first time.
Wu Bicheng devoted himself to carpentry. Wu Ying/Photo
Different from the traditional furniture wood product production, the soul of trees is continued in a creative and handmade way, so that they can become a "useful thing" - this satisfaction makes Wu Bicheng even more fascinated. Grinding a wooden gun and making a music box, then, starting from learning the basic knowledge of carpentry, playing carpentry in the laboratory, to asking the master for teaching skills, and then conquering everyone with innovative and trendy design, Wu Bicheng has strengthened his confidence and determination to be a creative "carpenter".
After graduating from university in 2017, Wu Bicheng stayed at the school as a carpentry lecturer. A year later, in June 2018, Wu Bicheng decided to come to Shenzhen for development. "The development of woodworking in the new era cannot only rely on the inheritors to wave the flag, but through the combination of traditional woodworking skills and industrial design thinking, so that the excellent culture can sink and spread." Following such a plan, in March 2019, Wu Bicheng and his friends partnered to set up their first carpentry workshop in a mountain in Nanshan District.
Wu Bicheng led the children to do carpentry.
Talking about the reason for choosing to open a carpentry workshop in Shenzhen, Wu Bicheng said: "The children's creativity is the most whimsical, so that the children can feel the charm of traditional skills in their hands, and can better inherit the woodworking skills." Shenzhen, on the other hand, has a large number of young people and is more advanced in thinking, and many young parents are willing to let their children try the new education system. ”
However, this period of time also made Wu Bicheng realize that the power of "closed-door" publicity alone is limited, and Wu Bicheng believes that it is necessary to launch a brand to make "Yimu Workshop" a public welfare children's woodworking brand and let more people know about it. As a result, Wu Bicheng and his partners decided to move the studio to the 1980 Cultural Park of Longhua Minzhi, and opened the "Yimu Workshop" in earnest.
Cultivating "doll craftsmen" in the workshop
Different from ordinary woodworking products, Wu Bicheng pays more attention to children's preferences. A 30-centimeter-long pistol can be a toy with a continuous hair band, a small puppet can be an aromatherapy doll in the car, and a music box or a car can be made very happy. Wu Bicheng found that everyone likes this world too much.
"The woodworking workshop is all about seizing the 'peak' of children's creative abilities and finding ways to stimulate their creativity." Wu Bicheng said, "We use wood as the carrier, toys as the form of expression, and use children's favorite characters or themes, such as Ultraman, small animals, small trucks, etc., to do DIY creations, improve their interests, and simultaneously pass on wood art knowledge such as sawing and mortise and tenon, so as to give full play to children's imagination as much as possible." ”
The creative woodworking experience of Yimu Workshop not only planted a seed of woodworking enlightenment in the hearts of children, but also truly became a work of art that can be held in the palm of your hand by combining it with trendy IP.
Foreign friends also love Chinese carpentry
Since the establishment of the workshop, it has regularly brought public welfare woodworking to schools and communities in Shenzhen every year, so that more and more young people can get in touch with traditional woodworking skills. Many schools also came here and wanted to invite Wu Bicheng to develop their campus woodcraft courses.
Among them is the Wisdom Star Kindergarten affiliated to Songhe Primary School in Longhua District, which is less than 200 meters away from Yimu Workshop. "In addition to setting up a complete curriculum system according to the age characteristics of the children, it is also necessary to train professional teachers. It is not only necessary to teach students to do carpentry, but also to instill in them the ability to be creative, design, etc. Now, Wu Bicheng and his professional team are turning the space of "Yimu Workshop" into a real classroom, covering the carpentry classroom system, carpentry classroom planning, carpentry teacher training, etc., and providing "full case services" for carpentry education for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in Shenzhen.
Come here to experience the "Weekend Carpenter"
Ruby, a 24th prospective Wuhan University freshman who was escorted. While waiting for admission, she chose to come to Yimu Workshop to become a "carpenter", following Wu Bicheng to play with wood and do new media operations. On the one hand, the wood itself is easy to calm down, which is a very decompressing and healing thing, and in addition, she can also learn the craft seriously when she comes here, and spend a few hours making a bamboo dragonfly, music box and other small objects, and then send them to Xiaohongshu, for her, this kind of life is very fulfilling.
Recently, in order to let more people know about this place, Wu Bicheng began to study network marketing, introducing the charm and production process of woodcraft, and there are a lot of sharing notes about Yimu Workshop on Xiaohongshu, and many people who like woodworking also find this place through these platforms, in order to be a "weekend craftsman" and experience the satisfaction of "slow work and fine work".
The children had a lot of fun.
In the past "May Day" holiday, Yimu Workshop ushered in the peak period of customer flow. Young people meet in the workshop, sawing, planing, chiseling, grinding, learning step by step, touching woodwork, harvesting a day's tranquility and their own unique wood art in the hustle and bustle of the city; The foreign lady took out an afternoon to concentrate on making a pendant and a camera, which is not only a delicate ornament, but also a special gift made with heart; The aunt, who is over 50 years old, stops here, selects wood, polishes and carves, and a wooden comb full of warmth and experience is completed in her hands...... Wu Bicheng has also developed dozens of styles of woodwork products, which are provided to people who come to experience DIY independently, from wooden rings and wooden cars to shelves and wooden tables.
A love, a legacy. "Combining traditional carpentry with new trends of thought, and opening up a new way to inherit and carry forward carpentry that adapts to the current social development, this is what I have always done." Wu Bicheng said.
Wu Bicheng
Born in 1995, he is the co-founder of Yimu Workshop, a children's woodworking brand in Shenzhen. In 2018, he came to Shenzhen and founded the Yimu Workshop brand, focusing on the development of children's woodworking curriculum system.
Reporter: Wu Ying
Photo: Zeng Guanglin
Editor: Chen Jianguo