God-level Golden Hand

Chapter 1307 So Little

Zhou Jianming's meaning could not be more clear when he said in front of Xu Jingxing to find someone to make finished jade pieces.

So Xu Jingxing blinked and asked, "So Second Uncle means..."

"That's right, I will leave it to you," Zhou Jianming replied with a smile.

"Second Uncle, you can think clearly. I only learned jade carving at the end of last year. It's only been half a year now, and my skills are still very unfamiliar..."

"Hahaha, what you said is insincere. Jade carving is also carving. It is no different from wood carving in essence. It is just that the materials and tools are different. In the hands of a big expert like you, half a year is enough for you to get familiar with it. Everything."

"You really have enough confidence in me."

"I'm not a pure layman who doesn't know anything?" Zhou Jianming said with a smile: "If you are just a simple woodcarver and temporarily switch to jade carving, then I will definitely not entrust you with this job, but in fact You are the kind of artist with a very solid foundation. Wood carving is just a branch extending from your solid foundation, while jade carving is a flower blooming on that branch of wood carving. With his achievements, turning to jade carving is just a matter of course."

"I'm even ashamed of what I said," Xu Jingxing scratched his head, but he was quite proud in his heart, because what Zhou Jianming said was the truth.

With his understanding of traditional culture and his profound knowledge in the field of artistic creation, not to mention wood carving and jade carving, even other traditional handicrafts are easy to do. It is nothing more than a familiar process, like a clay figurine. Handicrafts such as kites and fans are really not difficult for him.

That's the benefit of having a solid foundation.

On the contrary, most of today's craftsmen start learning directly from crafts, starting from "photographing cats and drawing tigers", or even memorizing them by rote. There are a set of formulas summed up by the predecessors for everything. It all starts with memorizing formulas and formulas, and even memorizes formulas for a lifetime, and I don’t know the principles of those formulas until I die.

The result is that it is very difficult for these people to change careers. Those who do woodcarving will only do woodcarving all their lives, and those who do jade carving will only do jade carving. part.

For example, the well-known Dongyang woodcarving has this tendency. The apprentices it trains will only do part of the huge process. A piece of Dongyang woodcarving needs to be completed by several apprentices. One person does part of it, which is fast, convenient and efficient, but The effect of the finished product can be imagined.

Xu Jingxing is not a traditional craftsman, not even a craftsman in the first place. He has no bad habits in that area, and his foundation is still very solid. If he wants to change careers, it is naturally very easy, and it is easy to produce results, because no matter how the materials and tools are Changes are inseparable from the category of "arts and crafts", and they all need to be embellished with cultural factors. In the end, when they are implemented, it is the ability to create art that matters.

Therefore, after hearing Zhou Jianming's praise, he really felt that he deserved it.

So he asked directly after a few polite words: "What do you want to do, second uncle? Ornament? Handle? Or jewelry? Or something else?"

Zhou Jianming thought for a while, but replied with a bit of distress: "I want everything, but there are only so few ingredients, it's really embarrassing..."

"...You are really greedy."

"I have never come across such a top-quality material several times in my life. Of course, I have to do everything I want to do, especially since I developed this material myself. How meaningful it is," Zhou Jianming said as a matter of course.

Well, that's the same reason.

Xu Jingxing said helplessly, "Which piece is for decoration, and the other piece is cut up for other small pieces?"

"Cut it? It's a pity..." Zhou Jianming hesitated again.

"Why don't we make one piece into a decoration, and one piece into a large seal. The seal can be used for yourself, as a plaything, or as a decoration. It can serve multiple purposes."

"Such a big seal, is it about to catch up with the jade seal?"

"...Then cut half of it to make a small seal, and cut the other half into two pieces to get a pair of bracelets, and the remaining bracelet core can be used to make a few small pendants, how about it?"

"Hey, that's pretty good, so it's settled," Zhou Jianming's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly, "Xiao Xu, I'll leave this job to you."

"The specific details have to be discussed," Xu Jingxing hastily stopped Zhou Jianming who was about to be the shopkeeper.

Just kidding, if you do such a big job, if you don’t discuss all the details in advance, it will be difficult to deal with any problems, such as the style of the decoration, the specific theme, the printing format of the seal, the content, the font, the style of the bracelet, and the main body of the pendant Wait, these contents need to be communicated in advance.

It's not that he's afraid that Zhou Jianming will play tricks in this regard, it's just that he needs to avoid such risks as much as possible. When doing things, the right way is to put a villain first and then a gentleman.

Besides, if he doesn't even know the contents of making jade articles for others, it's not easy for him to start. Although he has a lot of room to play in this way, if the things that come out are not pleasing, it will be disgusting .

So even though Zhou Jianming repeatedly expressed his belief in his craftsmanship, he still dragged Zhou Jianming to discuss all the details.

In the end, he also bluntly offered a manual fee of 200 million.

Zhou Jianming was taken aback when he heard his quotation, and asked in disbelief, "So little?"

Well, it's a little less.

According to Xu Jingxing's knowledge of the market, the current jade carving masters do not look at the workload when charging, but look at the value of the material. The higher the value of the material, the higher the fee. The specific fee standard is not fixed, but it follows The overall value of the material is directly proportional, some materials are one-tenth of the total price, some charge one-fifth, some charge one-eighth or one-half, and some even directly charge one-to-one The price is charged, that is, 1000 million materials will be charged 1000 million manual fees.

In addition, there are also some masters who charge according to the weight of the material, some charge according to the weight of the raw material, and some charge according to the weight of the finished product. The unit price ranges from a few yuan per gram to several hundred yuan per gram.

There are also some masters who make a price after looking at the material, and insist on how much labor will be required, whether it is successful or not.

Of course, this is the charging standard of jade carving masters, and the price of ordinary craftsmen is much lower.

But who dares to send the best materials to ordinary craftsmen for carving?Shouldn't you try your best to find jade carving masters?
Like Zhou Jianming's two pieces of mutton fat jade that are the size of half a football, they are already top-notch in Hetian jade. If you really want to find someone to carve, you must find the top jade carving master, and he has the title of "Master of Arts and Crafts" The kind of master.

And how many jade carving masters are there who have the title of "Master of Arts and Crafts"?Even counting the provincial-level "Masters of Arts and Crafts", there are quite a few of them.

Rare things are expensive, and those "masters of arts and crafts" are naturally worth a lot, and the charging standards are not low.

Even if the charging standards of masters of different genres and levels in different regions are different, there is still a price. For such a large piece of material, but also to make a decoration, it is really necessary to strictly follow the charging standards of the market. Absolutely not It will be less than 1000 million, and if it is higher, dare to ask for 2000 million or even 3000 million.

Because the market is just like this, many masters don't even set prices in advance, but ask the price based on the price of the finished product, and the work and materials are divided in half.

That is to say, if the carved finished product is worth 4000 million yuan, the engraver will take half of it, which is 2000 million yuan in labor costs.

Isn't it scary?

It’s right to be scary, because top-quality materials are rare, and top-notch craftsmanship is also rare. Although top-quality materials and top-notch craftsmanship complement each other, in the end, between materials and craftsmanship, craftsmanship is more valuable.

Those master-level figures took half of the total price. Although it is a bit scary, it is not incomprehensible, because a master-level jade carver needs at least decades of hard work to build the foundation. The charges are all paid for the sweat of the previous decades, just like the development of drugs, the super high drug prices are paid for the sky-high research and development costs.

Therefore, Zhou Jianming was very surprised after hearing Xu Jingxing's quotation. The labor cost of 200 million was indeed too low.

You know, even an ordinary jade carver these days would cost tens of thousands of dollars just to carve a small pendant, but with Zhou Jianming's set of tools, the workload and difficulty of the work are not as simple as two hundred pendants. Instead, it grows geometrically.

Bracelets and pendants are nothing, but the technical content of seals and ornaments is not generally high. In addition to carving, it also includes two processes of design and polishing, which are also the bulk of the labor cost.

That's right, in the jade carving industry, labor cost is just a general term. In fact, there are two links of design and polishing in subdivision, because jade carving works are like this, and the difficulty of design and polishing is also different. Like bracelets, design and polishing There is almost no difficulty, and the cost is negligible, but the pendant is different, the difficulty of design and polishing is slightly increased, and the proportion of this aspect is slightly higher when the work fee is paid.

As for seals and decorations, depending on the size and style, the proportion of design and polishing will be higher and higher. Seals are good, decorations, especially decorations with more engraving techniques, are very difficult to design, the most difficult to polish, and expensive. The proportion is naturally heavier.

Therefore, among the charging standards of the jade carving industry, the charging standard for ornaments is the highest.

Carving an ornament that weighs seven or eight catties costs three to five million yuan, and the masters don't even bother to look at it. For a complete set of materials weighing more than ten catties, it's not too much to charge you 500 million yuan.

Because of this, Zhou Jianming would blurt out the words "so little" after hearing Xu Jingxing's quotation.

(End of this chapter)