How to make ancient inkpad?

Good raw materials can make high-quality inkpad.

worried

Wormwood is one of the main components of inkpad, which is obviously different from wormwood hanging in front of one's house on Dragon Boat Festival. The latter is mostly cheap double-petalled wormwood, while the former is mostly single-petalled wormwood, with tough texture and stout stems and leaves, which has obvious curing effect on inkpad.

cinnabar

This is a common inorganic pigment. Chemically speaking, cinnabar is a natural mineral of mercury sulfide. Its molecular structure is symmetrical and stable, not afraid of light and insoluble in water. It is a very stable high quality pigment. This is also the reason why people have made inkpad with cinnabar since ancient times.

castor oil

It is taken from castor seeds and is a yellow viscous liquid. When making inkpad, fresh castor oil is not the best choice, and it usually takes 3-5 years of natural oxidation. And the better the inkpad, the longer the castor oil is oxidized.

Steps:

choose

Before making inkpad, wormwood needs to be dried repeatedly in the sun and the thick stems removed. Next, wrap the wormwood in a cloth bag and cook it in a pot. Then wash it and dry it in the hot sun. Finally, wormwood should be picked manually and divided into different quality grades according to its length. The longer the wormwood is, the better the quality is, and it is more suitable for making inkpad.

Adjustment; adjust

The raw materials are ready, and the next step is to prepare. This step usually takes more than half an hour.

The most important thing in preparing inkpad is to control the proportion of raw materials. Pour the prepared materials into the stone mortar and pat gently with Dorobou. The standard of beating is that oil will not float and cinnabar will not sink. At this time, the inkpad has the toughness of fresh rice cakes.

Input color

The color of traditional inkpad is orange, which is the true color of cinnabar. But out of personal preference, inkpad will also have colors, such as black, blue, purple, and even gold and silver. In the past, inkpad of different colors could be used freely, and then it gradually formed a conventional saying, for example, the inkpad color of calligraphy and painting is red; Blue has become the special color of official seal.

seal

After the inkpad is put into the cylinder, it needs to be covered with a layer of metal foil. High-quality inkpad is generally made of 24K pure gold foil. The purpose is not only to show the value and identity of inkpad, but also to pay tribute to tradition. Some will be covered with silver foil, but in either case, the seal will not be completed until the inkpad is covered with metal foil, and an inkpad will be officially born.