Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1313 Incentive

"Ah, yes." Yao Chong received Zhou Zhi's hint and quickly stepped down: "Our current idea is mainly to bring out the advantages of our factory, that is, the level and talents of our senior craftsmen. , there will be a bigger stage, broader space for development, and of course, better income.”

"Don't have too many scruples. We have a rare opportunity to test the waters this time. We are by no means asking everyone to lay off their jobs, or even suspending their work without pay as in other units. We will ensure everyone's basic protection. Let everyone be bold enough to create and create greater value.”

"Well, let me give you some incentives." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "This batch of works that I customized, no, this batch, and many more customized works in the future, as long as they can be rated as provincial awards, every one of them will The project provides an additional reward of 20,000 yuan; if you can win the Hundred Flowers Award, or get first place in the competition awards organized by the Ministry of Light Industry, the Ministry of Culture and other ministerial-level units, you will receive an additional reward of 50,000 yuan. What do you think?"

"Do you really mean what Xiao Zhou said?" Xu Zhimian's little eyes lit up again: "The Hundred Flowers Award winners are often not big items, like Xiao Zhu's set of imitation Han jade components last time. Xiao Zhou, did you spend 50,000 yuan? You want to give me a reward of 50,000 yuan, but I’m afraid that... the input is not proportional to the output.”

"It doesn't matter." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "I don't believe that the Hundred Flowers Award is that easy to win."

"Then don't regret it." Lu Man felt that Zhou Zhi had slighted them, but he didn't know that Zhou Zhi was actually trying to provoke others.

"How can you regret it?" Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "If you can carve a ring to win the Hundred Flowers Award, I will give you a reward of 50,000 yuan."

"keep your word?"

“We can even write it into the custom commission contract.”

"Okay! Then let's quickly decide on the theme and start work as soon as possible!" Zhu Qinghong was also excited: "Even if we can't get it at the national level, we can't get it at the provincial level either?!"

"Okay, let's decide on the subject first." Xu Zhimian still takes great care of his disciples and grandchildren, so now he simply changes the topic without talking to Yao Chong.

Zhou Zhi sighed secretly in his heart, forget it, the jade carving artists in Suzhou will take the step of building their own studios sooner or later. As long as the skills of these master craftsmen do not retreat, they will have a place in the future market, so there is no need to worry. To encourage growth.

Determining the theme is actually not difficult, because Zhou Zhi does not limit everyone's performance, and the child's preference is the most familiar theme for jade carving craftsmen, that is, "Jiu Gu".

Zhou Zhi doesn't like purely modern sculptures, such as carving a conch, no matter how lifelike it is, it won't be to his taste.

However, if we carve the conch into a rare left-handed conch, and then carve a formless monk bowing his head in the opening of the conch, make the conch become extremely huge through contrast, and then name the theme "Buddha's Sound", this theme will be interesting. .

Innovation and change must have traces to follow.

For example, antique utensils can refer to the shape of ancient ritual utensils, but the size ratio is reduced to the mini level. The largest tripod should not be larger than the size of a fist, and the smallest jue is only as big as a little finger. Make a set of thirty or forty pieces as a set. It is no small matter for a master like Zhu Qinghong to show off his exquisite carving on the combined themes.

Large items are actually easier to buy, because high-quality Hetian jade aniseed is now hard to come by.

As long as there are no major flaws in the craftsmanship, it will basically be at the level of winning a grand prize. However, Zhou Zhi also had requirements. For example, the largest piece of material this time, according to the general method, is Shanzi, and the subject matter is nothing more than landscapes, towers, figures, and animals.

But Zhou Zhi came up with an idea. We should still make Shanzi, but this Shanzi should imitate the shape of the Boshan stove in the Han Dynasty.

Boshan is a mountain where chess is played, and it is also a fairyland. The mountain is an ethereal fairyland, so the theme is still nothing more than landscapes, towers, figures, and animals. However, the animals here are no longer the deer, cranes, cows and horses that are common in ordinary mountains, but should be from the cultural relics of the Han Dynasty. Drawing from the above, mythical beasts such as chilong, flying tiger, black turtle, and blue bird;

In short, it is necessary to be able to tell at a glance that it is developed from traditional themes, but if you look closely, you will find that there are differences and changes from traditional themes. Although such themes have never appeared in history, no one will find it awkward.

Zhou Zhi is very advantageous in this aspect. He has a very rich imagination in this aspect and has seen a lot of traditional ancient carvings. He makes associations based on the shape of the jade material and tells the theme he wants. Then Xu Zhiman uses an outline pen to He simply sketched the picture in anticipation, adjusted it into a rough manuscript according to Zhou Zhi's meaning, and then Zhou Zhi gave it a poetic name, making the remaining people look at each other.

What do today’s jade carving craftsmen lack most? It’s cultural influence.

Zhou Zhi just happened to be able to make up for this shortcoming for them.

For example, for a piece of flat oval jade material sprinkled with gold and skin, Zhou Zhi asked Xu Zhimian to trace a Buddha statue, but only the head and neck, as well as an irregular part of the chest, created the imagination of an unfinished Buddha cave statue, and named it "Sha Sha". "State" immediately draws the viewer's mind to that place of worship on the ancient Silk Road.

This is called artistic conception, which is a necessary element for winning awards. It is also one of the most difficult qualities for current creators to possess.

In Zhou Zhi's previous life, it actually took until the price of artworks appreciated thousands of times to attract many professional art talents from the sculpture departments of major art academies to join the jade carving industry and undergo hard training; or traditional jade craftsmen could obtain It was only after I had the opportunity to study at the Academy of Fine Arts that I applied the knowledge I learned back to jade carvings.

The value of Xu Zhimian as the chief craftsman of the jade carving factory was reflected at this time. Only he could understand the intention of the thorough explanation and then make a draft that his disciples could understand and guide them in their creation.

And Zhou Zhi's image in front of everyone in the jade carving factory has also been improved. Literati are very thoughtful. In fact, the craftsmanship is still the same, but with the sublimation of the subject matter, artistic conception and even the title of the work, in Yao Chong's excited words, that is "It's of great value", it's of great value.

The judges of the Hundred Flowers Award liked this one the most!

Of course, it is impossible to get all the 500 kilograms of jade materials in this way, so it will no longer be enough for 250,000 yuan.

Therefore, I left some small information to Xu Zhimian and let everyone use it freely.

Today's "apprentice workers" are not the derogatory term apprentice workers in later generations. Even the two great-grandson-level rising stars Guo Changzheng and Lu Jianghua have much better craftsmanship than the "masters" with famous names in later generations. As long as If their themes are based on traditional themes and don't come up with things like white jade Jehovah's sapphire cross, then the problem won't be big.

However, there are more than ten pieces of 500 kilograms of jade in various sizes, and several of them are gifts for cousin An An. In addition to selecting the jade materials to be used for carving Xiancha, the dragon's head chalice and the tapestry ring need to be carved using large pieces. The leftover materials he took out at the time could not be completed in a short while, so Zhou Zhi simply left a few jade carvings in the jade carving factory for Zhu Qinghong and others to figure out.

(End of this chapter)