Riding the wind of rebirth

The evaluation of national masters has always been very strict, and later it even included how many years you have been in the industry, how many awards you have won, how many exhibitions you have participated in, how many national and provincial museums, arts and crafts art galleries your works have been collected, and also, in your artistic creation No matter how many innovations there are, they must all be included in the evaluation criteria.

This phenomenon lasted until one or three years. One or three years later, the country decided that the master assessment should be handled by social organizations and the Light Industry Federation. This kind of governmental "master" title has just reduced its gold content, and various "master" titles have become less valuable. It was only from that time that "Master" became ubiquitous.

Knowing this, you can know the importance of the mountain "Wanfang Music Plays in Khotan". The two identities of the creator, the first national arts and crafts master and the director of the Suzhou Jade Carving Factory, have already determined this piece. Jade carvings have immeasurable room for appreciation.

When Zhou Zhi looked through old reports about this group of jade carvings, Manager Zhou was very patient.

This Mr. Zhou seems to be knowledgeable, and he seems to value handicrafts very much. The more he knows, the more confident I will be in determining the wages. As for the national craftsman, I don’t charge other wages, but only this amount. Thirty-two thousand is not too much for carving work, right?

Isn't it... too much?

This set of jade carvings took a total of half a year from design to finished product. It took half a year to carve three households worth [-] yuan, which seems quite excessive when you think about it.

If Mr. Xiao Zhou brings this up later, how should I respond?

However, what Zhou Zhi then asked had nothing to do with Manager Zhou’s thoughts, and there was a bit of surprise in his tone: “The authors of Wu Feitian are actually two women?!”

Judging from the introduction in the pictorial, Suzhou jade carving was mainly done by male workers at first. Female workers participated in the jade carving industry because of the earliest cooperative movement.

The form of cooperatives in Suzhou is much earlier than that in other parts of the country, and the jade carving factory is one of them, because Suzhou workers pay attention to exquisiteness to the extreme, especially the latte art process, which requires using jade materials to touch extremely fine rotating steel sheets, so that the steel sheets will Very fine patterns are drawn on the jade material, and women's patience and carefulness have a unique advantage.

Therefore, later on, female workers almost always played the leading role in Xiu jade flower pieces, a special local jade carving form of Su Gong.

There are more than ten processes in flower cutting, such as printing, drilling, drawing, chopping, flat carving, etc. Most of them are performed by female workers, especially the drawing process, which is all performed by female workers.

This is a highly professional technical job, and their skilled latte art skills are beyond the reach of even male workers.

Although the latte art process has since been replaced by needle grinding, women soon found an area where they could play - polishing.

Polishing is the last step in jade carving, and it is also a step that adds luster to jade carvings and should not be underestimated.

There are four polishing processes, which require great care and patience. Therefore, in the polishing workshop, female workers soon accounted for the majority.

Even though the polishing method has evolved from traditional yarrow polishing and transmission polishing to full manual polishing, the tools have also been changed from thallium to whetstone sand strips.However, the requirements for polishing have not only not decreased, but are also much higher than in the past, and vision is even more important, and it also requires patience and care, as well as being able to sit still.

Therefore, the young Suzhou girl with a gentle temperament is particularly suitable for this job.

Of course, this is just the beginning. As a large number of women entered this industry, some of them, who were smart and willing to learn, soon emerged in the factory and became the backbone of technology.

These top female jade carving craftsmen are particularly powerful in the jade carving categories of ladies, figures, and antiques.

Among this group of jade carvings, the Han sword and jade equipment, the animal-faced waist buckle, and the picture of a ringed pepper were created by Zhu Qinghong, a female artist from the Suzhou Jade Carving Factory who was one of the few antique masters in the country at that time.

As for Wu Feitian, it was jointly created by Lu Man and Zhang Mingyu, two masters of figure sculpture in the factory. "Times have really changed, men and women are the same." Zhou Zhi praised him repeatedly.

In the jade carving industry, the finished products look bright, but the processing involves water and mud in addition to machinery. It is dirty, tiring and dangerous. Women can have a place in it. In addition to the upgrading of processing tools, the independence of women in the new era is also part of the reason. Self-improvement is the key factor.

But in any case, as a gift unit, the creators are both male and female, which is also very significant for the progress of the times.

What's more, the level of these people is very high. Perhaps because they are both women, the appearance and expression of the two Feitian are particularly beautiful and vivid.

The decorative lines on the auspicious beasts, pepper pictures and jade sword costumes are also particularly neat and delicate.

Therefore, there are innovations and breakthroughs in this set of jade carvings, no matter from the creator, from the subject matter, or from the artistic expression techniques. Zhou Zhi felt guilty if he did not give a good price.

However, Manager Zhou has just set the upper limit for the number of master workers, so Zhou Zhi cannot pay more. After thinking about it, he finally closed the pictorial: "That's it, let's just pay it per head. Master Huang's salary is [-] yuan." , each of these craftsmen is counted as [-], so the total salary is [-], but there is a condition, that is, all these materials must also be packaged and given to me."

"Ah? Okay, okay..." Manager Zhou was really overjoyed. He had just been quietly letting Zhou Zhi flip through the illustrated magazine, and he didn't say much in return, but here he comes.

Originally, I thought the price was [-] yuan for a package and I could bargain with it. However, Zhou Zhi paid special attention to the work of a female craftsman and directly raised the price to [-] yuan!
Both parties were very satisfied, and everyone thought this was an unexpected but valuable gain.

This is a big business of almost 40 yuan. The Gongmei Hall has completely confirmed what Manager Zhou reported to his superiors - three years of operation after opening!

This amount is not a small amount. For example, the jade trading market that Liu Ping'an in Hotan wanted to build would only cost this amount.

In such a transaction where both parties believe that the benefits are huge, the social atmosphere cannot be better.

The next step is the requirements for packing and transportation. Zhou Zhi has extremely strict requirements on packaging. Fortunately, Gongmei Hall has extensive experience in exhibition delivery before, so this aspect is not a problem. As long as it is packaged and handed over to Director Qin for consignment, it will be fine.

As for the splendens jars that Zhou Zhi was interested in, as well as the high-end Adelaide silks, wool scarves, etc., Manager Zhou gave them all as gifts.

Ayiguli also received a scarf, and Xu Gang received a men's suit, including a metal buckle belt rich in ethnic minority flavor, a tie clip inlaid with tiny jade stones, and a set of nails decorated with enamel Men's care set with scissors and razor.

This time Zhou Zhi issued a cashier's check directly to Manager Zhou. The difference between a cashier's check and a check is that the check is spent first and then paid back. There is no guarantee that there will be money in the account, as long as there is money in the account on the payment day.

This form can only be opened when there is so much money in the account, and once it is opened, the corresponding money in the account cannot be moved and can only wait for the other party to pay.

Therefore, the credit of the cashier's check is much higher than that of the check. Moreover, the cashier's check also has a special feature, that is, it is only issued to the account and does not require the signature of the account owner. It can also well protect the identity privacy of the owner of the cashier's check.

After the two parties signed the contract, the matter was over, and the remaining matters would naturally be left to Director Qin and Father Xu to keep an eye on.

Logically speaking, a successful transaction like this requires a big drink, but Zhou Zhi declined politely. He only said that he had to take a flight tomorrow morning, and there were still many things to deal with and a lot of luggage to pack, so he talked to a few people in the Art and Design Hall. He shook hands and said goodbye.