How to carve gourd

Taste Lanzhou Carved Gourd from the Angle of Carving Techniques

Autumn was written in 20091February (this article was originally written by myself, please indicate the source).

The main difference between Lanzhou gourd art and other parts of China is that it is more important than carving, and traditional painting and calligraphy are embodied by carvers. This technology has a history of more than 100 years since it sprouted in the Qing Dynasty. At first, craftsmen carved flowers and plants on peeled gourds with needles for their own appreciation. In the early years of the Republic of China, several artists began to carve figures and drama masks and sold them as children's toys in the market. At this time, the work was carved after peeling the gourd. Times have changed. At present, there are about 300 gourd sculptors in Gansu province, mostly concentrated in Lanzhou and Linxia, and farmers account for more than 95% of the total number. With the continuous exploration and innovation of artists, their craft level is also constantly improving. As far as creative tools are concerned, only needles were used at first, but now needles, knives, needle knives and even soldering irons are used. Their carving tools are still mainly needles, and a few people only use carving knives. But because they can't carve very fine patterns with carving knives, few people have used them so far. In addition to the needle knife, there is also a needle knife carving method. This paper mainly talks about the advantages and disadvantages of three carving methods: needle, knife and needle knife, so that enthusiasts can deeply understand the gourd carving art in Lanzhou from the perspective of techniques.

It is not easy for us to carve wonderful traditional calligraphy and painting on the gourd. Stone carving includes painting, writing and carving. So many "methods" are ways to deal with details. Exquisite carving function reflects the endless changes of details. Only when the details are handled in place can we build a beautiful whole, produce aesthetic feeling and have "rhyme". Just like writing a Chinese character, the accuracy of stippling details is the premise of writing a good character. We judge the quality of a gourd sculpture by whether the sculptor has grasped the essence of traditional culture and how to deal with the details, instead of being confused by the external splendor, complexity and carving content, which is also the only criterion to appreciate the gourd art works.

Let's talk about needles first. In the past, the needles used in gourds were usually used for sewing and embroidery. As the most common tool, this needle has been used to carve gourds for many years, and many people still use it now. However, the needle used for sewing has low hardness, and it is easy to break the tip after a few engravings, which is very troublesome. Artists of the older generation have to grind several needles in advance when carving. The needles used now are all small twist drills bought from hardware stores. Grind the flat end of the drill into the shape of a needle, and then carve it on the gourd. The hardness of the drill is higher than that of the sewing needle, and the hardness is appropriate. It is not easy to break the tip when carving, and it is very convenient to use. A work can be ground two or three times. Needle engraving technology is simple, and it doesn't need the foundation of professional engraving, so the sculptor can master it in time. Moreover, the carving speed is fast and the output can be realized. At present, many middle and low-grade gourds on the market are carved with needles, which is why Lanzhou carved gourds are called "needle carved gourds".

The lines carved by the needle are slender and can be "as thin as silk". However, the expression form of needle is single, and the shape of needle tip determines its limited ability to express line changes. For example, it is difficult for calligraphy lines to achieve the effect of "breaking the hairpin, leaking holes, painting sand on the cone and Yin Yinni" as the ancients said. At present, needles are only suitable for carving the hair of some animals and decorative patterns with little line drawing (also called line drawing). Take a line drawing technique of Buddha as an example, its picture has strict requirements on the direction and radian of lines, but the thickness, dryness and brightness of individual lines have little change, so it is feasible to carve such a pattern with a needle alone. However, in China's art, sketch works have great limitations in interpreting traditional cultural elements. When carving Chinese painting lines with complicated line changes with needles, the lines carved with needles are very rigid and unchangeable, "craftsman style". To carve an ink painting, a figure or a landscape, we must first simplify the original painting into a line painting, turn many changeable things into a line, and "simplify" the elements that make up beauty. This is very undesirable in art, moreover, especially when carving lines with great changes such as China's calligraphy, it is even more impossible to use a single needle, that is, to use steel needles with different diameters for carving, and only the thickness of the lines can be changed. So the shortcomings of needle engraving are fully exposed.

Let's talk about knives again. In addition to carving gourds with needles, a few sculptors carve gourds with knives. Their works are mainly traditional Chinese paintings, with thick lines and strong ink and wash meanings. Local businessmen call this kind of works "freehand brushwork style", and the carving technique of carving knife is much more complicated than steel needle. The techniques of picking, pulling and rolling can express the charm of China and ink calligraphy, and their expressive ability of details such as line changes and dark colors of the picture is basically close to that of a brush, and their techniques are similar to the "knife method" in "wood carving". However, when this carving method is used on the gourd, it also exposes its weakness: because there is a thin hard skin on the surface of the gourd, a layer of white spongy substance is exposed after carving, which is very soft, and the carving knife can not reflect the effect of wood carving here, so the overall effect of carving is not as good as that of carving on the board, and it is easy to make the gourd "dirty".

The biggest feature of Gansu carved gourd is that the effect of carving patterns should be delicate and exquisite. However, the gourd lines carved with a knife are thick and thick, losing the fine characteristics. It is difficult to carve small lines with a knife, and it is basically impossible to make micro-carving. However, the details of the needle are limited, and the engraving is limited to some sketch works, especially when the needle expresses the charm of calligraphy, lithography and so on. The ability to handle the details of the needle is limited, and the line carved by the knife is too thick. How to make needles and knives complement each other?

Needle-knife combination, needle-knife advantages complement each other. Careful observation, from the gourd works handed down by the older generation of famous artists in Lanzhou, can be seen that Wang Deshan's gourd carving, for example, is his efforts to achieve the effect of writing brush by combining needle and knife. Wang Deshan's master, Mr. Li Wenzhai, even used some chemicals, but also made great efforts to carve it. These motives are a great progress in gourd carving! However, due to various social and environmental factors at that time, the predecessors failed to fully absorb the experience and knowledge of authentic woodcut, board painting, epigraphy and other art categories, and there were still some problems in their works. Simply put, the combination of needle and knife is to punch holes in the "manuscript" with a steel needle first, and then use a small carving knife (similar to a wood carving knife) to modify the details to show the "charm". The lines of characters and patterns carved in this way are round without losing the beauty of details, and can be used for micro-carving. In fact, the "knife method" has existed since ancient times. With the good quality of calligraphy, epigraphy and other arts, sculptors will naturally try their best to apply these exquisite skills, which have been passed down for thousands of years, to gourds. This carving method is more complicated and difficult to master than the single needle or single knife mentioned above. However, the complexity of art determines the complexity of production techniques, and complex techniques are not redundant. This complexity is still necessary! To create good works of art, we need to master skillful, superb and changeable production skills, as Wang Xizhi's On Books said: Every time we make a wave, we often fold the pen three times; Every bite, often in front of you, every horizontal painting, is like rows of clouds in the array; Every move is like a crossbow; Everything you do is like a falling rock; Such as folding steel hooks; Every time you pull, you are like a dead vine; Every indulgence is like a sudden interest in walking. Only in this way can the lines we carve give life to the works, express our abilities accurately and fully in the works, make the works unique and make people never tire of seeing them.

The combination of needle and knife engraving can express all traditional painting themes, including calligraphy, ink painting, line drawing, seals and so on. Without losing the "fine hair" characteristics of Gansu gourd. This will be the main method of making "high-grade" gourd crafts at present, and it is also an important method that our generation of gourd sculptors must inherit and carry forward.

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