Steps and precautions of clay figurine making

Clay figurine Zhang is a popular folk art in northern China, and its typical representative image of artists is praised as "clay figurine Zhang". With the continuous development of the art of clay figurine making, clay figurine making combines various art forms such as painting, traditional opera and folk woodblock New Year pictures, giving full play to its own artistic value. Therefore, the production of clay figurines not only needs the ingenuity of the producers, but also needs the producers to fully understand the unique charm of clay figurine art. The following rabbit will introduce in detail how the clay figurines are made.

Production preparation and matters needing attention

1. Prepare the stone mill, wooden hammer, mold, self-made iron solder, white powder, painting tools and other related tools needed by the clay figurine in advance.

2. Put the retrieved clods neatly in the corner outside the courtyard, dry them, mash them, add paper scraps, add water and stir them until the paper scraps and the soil are completely integrated and the cross section is fibrous, which can be used to make clay figurines.

3. It is best to use the mud from Wanquangou, Shaanxi. If you can't take it, let the mud and paper scraps fully contact with the mud until the surface of the mud becomes smooth and clean.

Production steps

1. Roll the dough made in advance into cakes, and pay attention to the uniform thickness and uniform surface distribution of the rolled mud cakes.

2. Put the rolled mud cake into the prepared mold, pay attention to the alignment of the mud cake, press hard after the mud cake completely overlaps with the mold, and remove the redundant mud cake after carefully checking the overlapping position.

3. Under the condition that the mud cake is not completely dry, insert the self-made fine iron solder above and on both sides of the mud mold to fix the upright state of the whole mud mold. Note that our self-made fine iron solder should be wound into a spring shape in advance, so that the fine iron solder can contact more clay molds to the maximum extent and make the clay molds more firmly fixed.

4. After molding, carefully take out the clay mold and put it in the open space outside the courtyard to dry.

5. Put a layer of white powder on the dry clay mold first, so as to ensure that the color on the back is more vivid.

6. Color evenly according to the shape of the finished clay mold, and pay attention to the main color and primary color first when coloring, so that the finished color layer will be clearer and better looking.

7. After painting, when the color is completely dry, apply a thin layer of transparent varnish on the surface of the painting to protect the painted pigment from being dissolved by water and keep the clay figurine for a longer time.

After watching the whole process of clay figurine making, Rabbit deeply felt that clay figurine making is a treasure of China folk art, which not only requires the patience and perseverance of the producer, but also requires the producer to have his own precise grasp of painting lines and artistic beauty. Although the craft of clay figurine making has gradually declined with the changes of the times, there are still many people with lofty ideals who love clay figurine making. I believe that clay figurine production will be handed down from generation to generation in their hands and will never die.