The southern winter is wet and cold, the road from the studio to the kiln is potholed, and Zhou Xin, a girl who is studying in xiamen for the second year of graduate school, is tired and breathless with the scooter pushing the porcelain embryo, and has to stop and cover her hands from time to time.
The embryo outlines the blue and white, the pen sharpens and fades, and the peony depicted in the bottle is just like your first makeup, the secret hidden in the kiln for thousands of years... "How beautiful the porcelain is, how embarrassing the porcelain maker behind it is", from the undergraduate to learn pottery design, to the graduate student to continue to study exhibition planning, Zhou Xin's studies have been around the design and production of ceramics and exhibition promotion.
Zhou Xin hopes that through her own efforts, Jingdezhen and porcelain culture will truly "go out". Born in 1994, she began the "Twin Cities Life" - every month in Xiamen, while taking classes, she went to Jingdezhen to make ceramics. Suddenly, it's been six or seven years.
Zhou Xin created her own studio in a private house in Jingdezhen. Returning from school in Xiamen, I hurried to the studio, tied my hair, tied my apron... Zhou Xin spends more time dealing with mud and brick kilns every week, "You see I have to paint a beautiful makeup on the camera now, and I have to become a woman in an instant when I start working." ”
The past year has been hard, but it has also been full of rewards. At the end of 2020, as a representative of college students, Zhou Xin was invited to participate in the 2020 National Education Science and Technology Conference, where she shared a speech - "New Expression of Art - More Possibilities of Education". In order to better learn porcelain culture, Zhou Xin actively participated in various exhibitions for the promotion of porcelain culture, and she was pleased to see that porcelain art was recognized by more and more people. Last year, their studio's work also won a gold medal at the China Ceramic Innovation Competition.
From the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties to the international fashion circle today, ceramic art has the characteristics of traditional Chinese Confucianism, Taoism and Ink, and has become a perfect combination of plain and elegant. In Zhou Xin's view, ancient porcelain "shelves are not grounded", ordinary people can enjoy the Republic of China porcelain is their favorite, for a long time, the Republic of China "blue and white king" Wang Bu has always been the male god in her mind.
<h1>A hundred flaws about ceramics</h1>
In Zhou Xin's Dayu Porcelain Living Studio, there is a standing cabinet displaying various ceramic works, which she calls "Baibaoge".
A small hand-painted teapot, where the model was dropped, was glazed on the lid of a pot of eight treasures, and the good porcelain cup had a clear line at the seam; the shanshui teacup looked good, but the inside was stained with sand; the smooth and rounded porcelain jar, the lid and the bottle body were glued together.
Zhou Xin's "Hundred Treasures Pavilion" is actually all defective, the intact works have been sold in the live broadcast room, and the remaining defective works are reluctant to throw away, Zhou Xin joked, "About the 100 kinds of defects in ceramics, I have them here." ”
"The reason why ceramics can become an art may also be because they are full of uncertainties, and defects and defects are often accompanied by every link of porcelain making and kilning." Zhou Xin's six or seven years of long "learning porcelain road" can also be regarded as her personal "flawed exhibition history".
Zhou Xin introduced that ceramics have 72 processes, although the modern process has been streamlined a lot, but the finished product of a ceramic, or through the process of drawing blank - molding - su firing - glazing - high temperature firing, and through 800 ° C low temperature firing of vegetarian blank, and 1380 ° C above high temperature molding, and the color glaze related painting creation and firing process, is the most energy-consuming.
Although she is already accustomed to doing hard work, Zhou Xin often reveals the eccentricity of college students, "Everyone says that 2020 is difficult, and I have burned a lot of porcelain plates myself." ”
The large porcelain plate looks exquisite every year, but in fact, there is a dark stripe on the tail of the fish, and this work is even "burned out". A long tea table made of landscape and water, the overall hair color is very beautiful, but look closely at every detail, it is full of bubbles. Zhou Xin said that every time the kiln is opened, you must experience "what is laughing and crying.". Making porcelain, even if the early painting is good, the last step of firing problems, may be a failure, and such a "moment of collapse", she has to experience several times a month.
Porcelain is the art of mud and fire. It is also this regret full of uncertainty that exists at any time, making every finished product valuable.
Every two days, Zhou Xin would push a scooter to walk on the path of the kiln house. The kiln is still some distance away from the studio, in the case of rain and snow billets can not be rainy, public kiln firing and mixed with a variety of glaze color to affect the color, so Zhou Xin has always wanted to have her own kiln.
<h1>Live sell porcelain, in order to save money to build a kiln</h1>
Solo music is not as good as crowd music. In order to better spread the jingdezhen porcelain culture, but also in order to have its own kiln as soon as possible, Zhou Xin opened the studio's douyin account of the same name @ Dayu Porcelain Live Studio, and broadcast live 2-3 times a week.
For more than half a year, she has been sharing the "story of going to college at Jingdezhen Ceramic University" on Douyin. Others go to college to listen to lectures and take notes in the classroom, and Jingdezhen students more around the embryo pulling machine to get mud. What was it like to be a ceramics student? In Zhou Xin's view, there are not only the hardships of entrepreneurial conditions, the rush and fatigue of the national exhibition, but also the joys and sorrows in the creative process, sour, sweet and bitter, but the final harvest is the transformation and growth of the self.
The mother who is far away in the northwest is also a fan of @Big Fish Porcelain Live Studio. Watching her daughter's painting work in the live broadcast room, listening to the video of her daughter sharing the daily life of learning, life and entrepreneurship, as a mother, she was pleased to see that the "little princess" she once held in the palm of her hand was growing independently in the far south day by day.
Because it is hand-painted glazing, there are restrictions on the opening of the kiln, Zhou Xin in @ Big Fish Porcelain Live Studio as soon as the live broadcast, the works were snatched up, Qilian Mountain, Guilin landscape, some works are fans scheduled to wait for a long time, she can only in the short video with everyone to solve the eye hunger, "can see can not buy." Zhou Xin felt that she was a bit "sorry fans".
Burning a kiln once, it is only about a dozen pieces, and the defective waste accounts for 60% or 70%, which is simply not enough for the needs of fans on live broadcasting. Zhou Xin's biggest wish at present is to work hard to save money to build a kiln and create as many good works as possible for everyone.
Every month at a fixed time to return to Xiamen for classes, the beauty of these porcelain raised in the deep boudoir also needs to be professionally promoted and disseminated, and choosing to study exhibition display at the graduate level is also Zhou Xin's decision to think twice. Now Zhou Xin's Douyin account has even become an online platform for her and her classmates to display ceramic creations.
"Guess what your usual ceramics are going through?" Facing the camera, Zhou Xin said: "They are undergoing a 1380 ° C tempering, like the nirvana of life." ”
Zhou Xin hopes that she can calm down and create more good works. The girl who was tired of the trolley was also like porcelain, the fusion of earth, water, fire, and metal, waiting for a time to give back...
Today's Zhou Xin is still sparing no effort on the road of burning porcelain; she is also persevering on the road of saving money to build a kiln.