My alabaster pot is broken and I don't know what I can use to glue it on that won't be too noticeable. I tried it with egg green but it didn't work well and it still sticks subsidized.

Dang! That's a harsh answer upstairs! Can I still make tea then?

The glass is broken, I can use garlic to crush it, but it seems that the purple clay pot can not stick to itself! It's too complicated to make!

The process of making zisha

Preparation of raw materials, including digging, refining and selecting materials. The hard lumps of clay dug out of the mine are crushed, sifted, clarified and filtered, and the resulting fine clay is stored in the kiln, called "raising the clay".

The main method of molding Zisha ware is hand kneading. First pinch the body, then dig the foot, open the surface, and finally add the handle, mouth, cover and so on. From the Ming Dynasty to the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the method of pinching was used, and a large number of molded products appeared in the Yongzheng and Ganlong periods of the Qing Dynasty. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, Chen Mansheng advocated the ancient method and the pinching method became popular again. Li Jingkang, Zhang Hong said well: "on the mold and fabrication, the mold of the method is easy to fine, in the industry for progress; fabrication of the method is difficult to fine, in the skills for the perfect attainment. Therefore, the law of the mold is easy to imitate, the law of the fabrication of the mediocre workers are not easy to handle. Famous masters of the pots are all pinch to fabrication, sit so ear."

Early billet-making tools are mainly a bamboo knife, and later gradually added wood, horn, stone, metal and other materials, and use the pottery wheel to pull and repair the billet. By the Qing Dynasty, there were more than ten kinds of tools including vertebrae, pestles, darts and hairpins in various shapes such as kui, wutu, shell, kidney, moon and scorpion-tail.

Made billet should be carefully trimmed, and some objects are then decorated. Decoration methods include: appliqué - stacking landscape, flowers, plants, people, birds and animals and other decorations; painting - aluminum oxide, iron oxide or magnesium oxide as a coloring agent, painting and writing in the blank; carving - in the blank body to the Yin carved out of the calligraphy and painting. Purple sand is generally not glazed, there are a small number of decorative glaze, large pieces to take the splash glaze method, small pieces to take the dip glaze method. Generally monochrome glaze once, painted ware on two times.

Ware billet after drying sagger into the kiln firing. Traditional method of firing zisha ware kiln is "dragon kiln", that is, the head low tail high inclined kiln. Long kiln is generally up to forty meters long, every meter for a section, burner in the head, fuel wood and firewood. The kiln has fifty burner eyes on each side of the kiln back, from which fuel is fed into the kiln. On both sides of the kiln, there is an entrance and exit every four to five meters, from which billets are loaded and wares are taken. Each kiln needs to be fired for 4,042 hours at a kiln temperature of 1,100°C to 1,200°C. After firing, the kiln is stopped for 1,524 hours, and then the kiln is opened to take the wares. It is very hard for kiln workers to use the dragon kiln for firing. Now the zisha factory has switched to a new type of kiln that burns heavy oil, which saves labor and improves the quality of firing.

After the burning of alabaster ware should be polished and waxed, waxing is a unique process of alabaster. Painted alabaster ware, need to go through two mounted firing.

There are also special decorations on the fired alabaster ware. The square pot of Shi Dabin in the Palace Museum, with its lacquer surface and carving, combines the craft of zisha and the craft of lacquer carving. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, the process of wrapping tin appeared, but due to the complexity of the technology, it failed to continue. There is also the process of polishing copper, copper is mostly found in the pot head, the edge of the mouth cover and other parts. Gold and silver wire inlay is a new decorative process, drawing on wood, lacquer carving techniques, the first in the clay blanks will be decorated with patterns carved into grooves, firing will be embedded in the grooves of gold and silver wire, knocked down and smoothed.

The molding method of alabaster pottery, since the Ming Dynasty Zhengde era. After successive generations of artists to explore, improve and scientific and technological progress, the method shows diversity, technology is also perfect.

In summary, the molding methods are handmade, grouting, billeting and printing billet molding and so on.

Manual molding methods: These include the "body-beating cylinder" and "body-setting cylinder," which are ancient handmade crafts.

Punching the body tube" molding method: first of all, the practice of cooked clay into a certain width, thickness, length of the "mud road wire", in the mud road wire into the mud in line with the requirements of the vessel and the mud piece, with the car and other tools to mark out the width of the mud bar, spinning the mouth, the bottom, as well as the enclosure piece, and then paste the enclosure piece on the front of the turntable, the turntable, the turntable, the turntable, the turntable, the turntable, the turntable, the turntable and the turntable. Then, the peripheral piece is pasted in the center of the turntable, and the clay bar is surrounded along the peripheral piece, and the circle is connected to form a clay cylinder, and then the left hand is lined in the cylinder, and the right hand is used with a thin wooden racket, which is patted and shaped.

"Set the body tube" molding method: for square utensils products: the first mud road wire cut into square pieces of clay, square pieces of clay into pieces of clay, according to the size of the product requirements for the preparation of samples, according to the samples cut pieces of clay, cut pieces of clay, according to the specifications of the type of utensils required to paste with fat clay, set the molding.

The key to hand molding is the proper specification of the molding technique of the clay embryo and the fine processing of the surface. Fine scraping and correction can make the structure of the vessel more rigorous, the contours of the line is clear and appropriate, clear texture of the tendons and capsules, to achieve the roundness of the jade, the production of the requirements of the integration of the whole.

Recently, modern molding methods: slurry molding method: is widely used in modern ceramic production molding process, the use of gypsum model of the water absorption, the slurry injected into the mold after the gypsum mold off, you can get a piece of hollow billet.

Molding tools

The success of an alabaster craft requires ten to dozens of complex molding processes. To complete these processes, one depends on the production skills of the artists, and the other depends on a wide range of production tools, both of which are indispensable. As the old saying goes: "If you want to do a good job, you have to make good use of your tools". The "tool" here refers to the production tools. Zisha molding tools, through successive generations of artists continue to explore, political reform, innovation, has formed a set of unique, economic, self-contained system of tools, the number of hundreds of kinds of size, texture copper, iron, wood, bamboo, horn, leather, plastic, etc.

Zisha molding tools a wide range, but also pay close attention to the shape of the aesthetic, the premise is to focus on practical. Most of these tools rely on their own production, even if some of the tools bought, but also after processing, after the repair can be used. This requires the maker of the entire molding process has a systematic, comprehensive understanding, to understand the different uses and specifications of a variety of tools, to be considered in the use of convenient, tactile comfort. Therefore, the production of zisha molding tools is also very learned, not only to consider the appearance of the shape, but also in line with the actual use of the function. The following is an overview of the specifications of the different tools:

One, hitch

Hitch is one of the main tools in the molding, mainly used for playing mud strips, tablets and whacking the mouth, the mud piece and so on. The main material used for the hitch is beech, sandalwood, jujube tree, etc., and the material should be dry. Hitch usually used with a damp cloth after wiping in a dry place, not in the sun, can not be used to play iron and other hard objects.

Two, beat

Pat is mainly used to beat the body tube, pat piece, pat mouth. Material to mahogany for the best, beat the total length of 28CM, beat the body width of 10cm. thickness is based on the material, date palm before the thick 3mm, 4mm thick, 4mm thick, after the thick 4mm, cypress thicker, mahogany can be thinner, the beat can not be immersed in water, should be put in a dry place to avoid one-sided moisture, to prevent the beat cracking.

Three, pointed knife

The pointed knife of the species is more, divided into iron pointed knife, bamboo pointed knife, through the mouth of the pointed knife, curved pointed knife and so on. Sharp knife is used for cutting mouth handle, cut button, turn foot, leather small flat surface of an ordinary and commonly used main tools, in fact, is also a simple sculpture tool. The material is made of steel, copper, stainless steel, old bamboo and so on. Its shape in the middle of a wide, pointed end, a slightly narrow rounded end, both sides of the line to be symmetrical, thick in the middle, thin on the side, into a curved shape. Sharp knife to be selected according to different uses, thick and thin, wide and narrow requirements vary.

Four, knife

Knife is the most widely used tool in molding, in the production process, the knife for cutting, peeling, picking, holding, digging, scraping, etc., from the beginning to the end of the use. The material used to make the knife is generally the most commonly used is ordinary steel, the blade should be often sharpened quickly. The ratio of handle to blade is about 6:1.

Five, moment car

Moment car's proper name should be the gauge car, it is specially used for rowing round piece, open with. Moment car is divided into four parts of the handle, car nails, standers and pins. Moment car handle is not easy to deform the bamboo, the station should be thick 1.5cm above the bamboo old man to do, moment car nail is iron, pin is made of bamboo. General moment car specifications are: handle length 20, 1.5, 0.5cm; station people total height 8.5cm, width 1.3cm, eye length 2.4-2.2, width 0.55cm; moment car for different purposes is based on the height of the station people and the moment car nails to regulate the general moment car station people than nails higher than 2mm. There are also a few special moment car, curved mud bar moment car, is mounted in the car shanks of the two station people; and the compound car and beat the line car, compound line car is not loaded with car nails, beat the line car is loaded with bamboo nails.

Six, line stalk

The line stalk is used to light a variety of decorative lines of tools, line stalks have horn, iron, plastic and bamboo. Stem is based on different decorative lines to grind and to be used according to each person's gestures, habits to determine the different angles of the stem. It is one of the most difficult tools to master in the production of molding.

Seven, Ming needle

Ming needle is a piece of horn, used for surface finishing tools. The head of the production of Ming needle to scrape flat, from top to bottom slowly thin down, Ming use immersed in water, when not in use to be fished up wipe dry.

Eight, the bottom of the moment mud skewer ruler

The two tools are made of bamboo, the bottom of the moment, also known as the bottom of the basis, the bottom of the pad, is padded in the moment the car's station below the paddling piece of use, in the chapter to open a round eye. Mud skewer ruler is used to start the mud strip and large pieces with? It is made of bamboo with a long pitch, from the handle to the head to gradually thin down, and slowly narrow, the back should be flat, the mouth should be flush, one side into a knife-like, hold the handle is generally exactly one bamboo section.

Nine, Le only, grate only, compound only

Le only used to light the mouth neck, bottom, foot and body cylinder junction tool, the material has a horn, bamboo, boxwood and so on. It according to different angles, arc bottom grinding into the required shape. Grate is only used for shaping, can grate the body tube on the small pimples on the small gap silk, mainly with simple pieces, made of wood. Grate as long as the shoulder, belly, bottom separate do, can not be a pot shape only use a grate only. The compound is used to compound the mud, generally made of 2~3mm bamboo slice or needle.

Ten, bamboo beat

Bamboo beat has a large, medium, small and pointed beat and so on several kinds. Large, in the beat is pumping the body tube, do square goods, small beat is used to push the body tube joints, swipe the mud, push the wall scraping the bottom, do the mouth handle, etc.; pointed bamboo beat can be held hostage to a large surface, do the mouth and so on.

Eleven, dig mouth knife, copper pipe

Dig mouth knife is used to dig mouth holes, with 2 ~ 3mm thick steel wire red after adding handle made. Copper pipe is to drill various sizes of holes, with lead or copper skin rolled into a cylinder half the diameter of the length of 10-12cm, at both ends plus into the edge.

Twelve, a single

This is used as a round eye, round mouth of the tool, at the same time in making flowers, stumps can also be used as sculpture tools. Bamboo made of a single with cool mud, wear-resistant and other advantages, and easy to take, easy to cut. Generally there are two kinds of one, one is a flat head used as a single cover eye, another is two pointed (one thick, one thin). Used as a single mouth hole and other holes.

Thirteen, the water brush broom

This is tied with a cloth used to bring water to the traditional gadgets. Playing body tube, faceted mouth, handle, faceted button, etc., are inseparable from it. It has the advantage of storing more water, easy to carry water. Especially when doing rough goods, the blank is too dry, can be directly dipped in water on the blank.

Zisha molding tools in addition to the above, there are a lot more here are not introduced. Zisha molding tools are produced in practice, and constantly improved, which is the crystallization of the intelligence of countless thousands of years of Zisha artists, it is complementary with the traditional Zisha technology can not be separated, it is not only and related to the artist to operate the convenience of the quality of the work directly with and.

So, the exquisite production skills must have the perfect production tools to assist, which I am afraid is also another unique place of zisha craft!