What are the characteristics of longan wood?

Longan woodcarving is the most representative handicraft in Fujian woodcarving, and it is also a unique traditional handicraft in China's woodcarving art. It is named after the longan wood which is rich in Fujian. Longan wood (namely longan tree) has solid texture, fine texture and soft color. The trunk of old longan, especially the root, is a good material for wood carving. Longan woodcarving developed in the Qing Dynasty, and its main producing areas developed from Fuzhou to Putian, Quanzhou, Hui 'an and other places. Fuzhou mainly includes Ke School in Xiangyuan Village (Ke Shiren), Pai Cheng in Daban Village (Chen Tianxi) and Lacquerware School in Yanta Village (Wang Qingqing). The three major schools in Fuzhou have formed their own characteristics because their carving skills are generally passed down from generation to generation, and their productions are different. Their original carving materials were mainly camphor wood, nanmu, mahogany and Chinese fir. Most of the sculptures are Buddha statues in temples, stigma, beams, shrines of temples, and flower carvings of daily furniture such as tables and beds. During the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, Kong Shuai, a famous sculptor in Fuzhou, first used hard camellia roots, shaped them according to the situation, chiseled them slightly, and then matched them with hands and feet to make unique natural root wood carving crafts. The emergence of independent woodcarving technology has made woodcarvers move from temples to folk, and gradually formed a professional woodcarving team.

Because the natural roots suitable for carving are hard to obtain, Chen Tianxi, an artist in Daban Village, used the longan trees (namely longan trees) which were abundant locally to carve them into natural roots, or burned them into corroded nodes with incense, and then carved them into figures, birds and animals. Later, artists in Xiangyuan Village also generally carved longan wood, thus forming a unique longan wood carving handicraft in Fujian. Elephant Garden School is not only good at setting design and layout, but also uses mechanical principles to make the works active, thus increasing the interest and artistic conception of the works. At that time, Osaka School creatively used bones and glass to make teeth and eyes, and assembled them on longan woodcarving figures and animals, making the works full of vitality. Yanta School is good at combining carved patterns and embossed flowers with lacquerware. The composition of the works is patchy and decorative, which enriches the decorative techniques of Fuzhou lacquerware.