Live Appreciation, Congratulations to Brother

Chapter 377 Fake Kiln

Zhang Yang came at an unfortunate time.

Teacher Lu went to Sheng Hai’s second son’s house to prepare for the New Year.

Receiving Zhang Yang and his party was the head of the workshop, Teacher Lu's eldest son, Lu Ruoyu.

This year it was his turn to be on duty at the kiln in Niujia Village.

Lu Ruoyu knew Lao He.

They used to have dinner together when Teacher Lu was still working in the museum.

After hearing Lao He's introduction that the young man in front of him was now the deputy director in charge of the museum, Lu Ruoyu was a little surprised and a little unimpressed.

The previous curator Xiao Wang who returned from studying abroad was already young enough, but now he has been replaced by a younger one?

It seems that the Hailin Museum is going downhill!

But when he saw the gift that Lao He took out from the trunk, he immediately put on a smile and took it with a smile.

"Director Zhang, you are too polite. Come as soon as you come. Why do you bring so many things?"

"Haha, it's just a small gift, not a sign of respect. I will ask you to hand over these two supplements to Teacher Lu when the time comes." Zhang Yang handed over the gift he bought at a high price very affectionately.

These gifts are really not cheap, but Zhang Yang is the new curator after all, so he still has to show his attitude.

"Thank you, I will definitely bring the things."

"By the way, Director Zhang, just call me Xiao Lu. You don't have to be so polite."

"No, no, no... Or I'll call you Lao Lu, and you can call me Xiao Zhang." Zhang Yang replied, looking at the other person's gray hair.

Lu Ruoyu is at least forty years old. If Zhang Yang calls out "Xiao Lu", everyone present will probably be embarrassed.

"That's okay, Director Zhang, you can do whatever you want." Lu Ruoyu nodded.

He just took a cursory glance and found that the gifts brought by the museum cost at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.

This young Curator Zhang is so honorable.

So he didn't forget to say hello to Shen Shuyu: "This must be the curator's wife, right?"

"No..." Zhang Yang was about to explain, but was suddenly intercepted.

"Not yet." Shen Shuyu smiled and said.

"Yes, not yet." Zhang Yang also smiled.

After greetings, Zhang Yang asked to see how to burn a jianzhan.

Lu Ruoyu took the three of them on a tour without hesitation.

As he walked, he introduced:

"Porcelain like Jianzhan is quite special. It must be fired with raw mineral soil from Jianyang. The mineral soil there has a relatively high iron content, so the Jianzhan produced can absorb magnets and is also called iron tire. "

These words are all popular science knowledge, and Zhang Yang actually knows it.

But judging from the way Shen Shuyu listened with gusto, it must be her first time hearing about it.

Zhang Yang then patiently reviewed Jianzhan's knowledge points.

"This place is where we store the raw ore soil..."

"Did you guys transport these from Jianyang?" Zhang Yang asked, looking at the woven bags stacked up in front of him.

Who would have thought that the mineral soil is preserved in this way? Those who didn't know it thought this place was a granary.

"Yes, both." Lu Ruoyu explained, "We registered the company in Jianyang, but due to venue rent and other reasons, we only set up an office there."

"Everything is burned here, and if there are large orders, they have to be shipped there for delivery."

"Is it so troublesome? Where is the cost advantage?"

"Mainly electricity and labor, and my father has always planned to build a kiln in the village..."

As soon as Lu Ruoyu mentioned the electricity bill, Zhang Yang understood.

Nowadays, almost all electric kilns are used to make jianzhan.

The electric kiln can be regarded as a large electric oven. The high temperature of more than 1,000 degrees required for firing porcelain is heated by electricity.

The power consumption behind this can be imagined.

So even if the price of one kilowatt hour of electricity is only half a cent, it will add up to a lot of money.

"After the raw ore soil is transported, the first step is to crush it." "The second step is to wash..."

When introducing the step of washing, Lu Ruoyu led everyone to several large tanks.

It was full of yellow muddy water.

This process is really washing the mud with water. The more the water is washed, the dirtier it becomes, but the sand and gravel are also sifted out.

After washing, pour the processed mud into a cloth bag and press dry the water to obtain fine mineral soil.

Then comes the machine drawing.

"Generally, the blanks drawn by machines cannot be used directly. They have to be manually repaired by our masters."

"What is this mainly for?" Shen Shuyu asked curiously, "I think this is already in the shape of a jianzhan."

"It's mainly about the details." Lu Ruoyu picked up a blank that had not been repaired yet, pointed at various parts on it and explained, "Generally, the foot wall, heel, foot circle, mouth edge, and water injection line need to be repaired."

After trimming, it is fired.

In fact, it is to bake the unglazed body slightly.

It can not only completely solidify the green body, but also find out in advance those defective products that have internal problems and will crack as soon as they are fired.

"The next step is the most important step besides firing, glazing..."

"Then it's put into a sagger and put into an electric kiln for firing."

Zhang Yang is very familiar with things like saggers because he often watches live broadcasts of kiln openings.

It is like a steamer used for steaming steamed buns. It is stacked layer by layer, and one or several pieces of porcelain to be fired are placed in each layer.

Judging from the way the on-site workers placed the saggers, this step seems to be quite particular.

Lu Ruoyu said that this is because even in an electric kiln, the internal temperature is related to the location, so different locations are used to fire different glazes.

"There is another step in the firing process that you can't see now, so I'll just introduce it to you verbally."

"In the past, pine wood was used to burn the lamps. When the wood burned, some ash would fall on the surface of the porcelain and combine with the glaze to form colorful colors."

"Our electric kiln does not have this step, so when the temperature in the kiln reaches a certain level, we will put in a little bit of pine firewood to collect ash."

"I see. No wonder the electric-fired lamps now have the patterns of wood kilns." Zhang Yang nodded in admiration.

Sure enough, as long as they can make money, nothing can trouble domestic craftsmen.

The trick of stuffing wood into the oven is a bit clever.

After listening to the whole process of building a lamp and firing it, the most anticipated part finally came - opening the kiln.

"Lao Lu, do you have a place where we can experience opening a kiln? My hands are a little itchy." Zhang Yang asked proactively.

"Director Zhang, did you also see the live broadcast of our kiln opening on Douyin?"

"Eh? Do you still live broadcast the opening of the kiln here?"

"Yes." Lu Ruoyu nodded, "It's so profitable to live broadcast the opening of a kiln. Nowadays, bosses with a little bit of Internet awareness will organize a live broadcast of the opening of a kiln."

"Anyway, you can definitely make a profit without losing anything."

"Sure profit, no loss? Why?" Zhang Yang found it a bit difficult to understand.

Isn’t opening a kiln a lottery? Can you still make a steady profit?

There's nothing fishy about this.

"Hehe, it seems that Director Zhang, you have never seen the opening of a kiln."

Lu Ruoyu smiled, his smile clear and silly.

"There are no real kilns open nowadays. They are all fake kilns."

"A 10-yuan flawless lamp can easily be sold for yuan in a live broadcast room."

"Really?" Zhang Yang nodded thoughtfully, "Where are you broadcasting live? Can we go and see it?"

"Yes, let's go. It just so happens that the fake kiln we made yesterday will be live broadcasted soon."

(End of this chapter)