China News Agency Lvliang, March 1st: Shanxi craftsmen engraved "Fu Lu" life "Treasure Gourd" sold overseas
Author Yang Peipei
Holding a gourd in one hand and an electric soldering iron in the other, in a studio in Wenshui County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province, Xue Gailian, the fifth-generation inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage Wenshui gourd making technique, is making gourds by pyrography.
It didn't take long for a peony to "bloom" on the gourd.
In the hands of Xue Gailian, gourds of different sizes and shapes, either branded or branded, are shortened to "mountains and rivers" between Yingcun, and the wonderful flowers of Jiahui are moved to the palm of her hand.
She turned the soil gourd in this field into a "treasure gourd" and sold it to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places, and exported to Singapore, the United States, Japan and other countries and regions.
Gourd pyrography, also known as heat transfer gourd, fire pen painting gourd, is a traditional Chinese folk craft with a long history and unique artistic style.
The gourd is homophonic "Fu Lu", and the gourd pyrography, as an intangible cultural heritage, is full of the connotation of "Fu Lu culture" and carries the culture of traditional folk craftsmanship.
"The gourd pyrography takes the gourd as the carrier and the engraving as the method, supplemented by the techniques of needle engraving, color painting, hollowing out, and embossing, etc., and applying the techniques of hooking, streaking, spotting, dyeing, rubbing, and line drawing to carve new characters on the gourd. Vitality." Xue Gailian said that making a gourd handicraft requires steps such as peeling, drying, polishing, carving, and painting, and pays attention to landscaping according to the shape, and each gourd has a unique style.
In Xue Gailian's works, there are natural scenery such as landscapes, flowers and birds on the gourd, as well as mythological figures such as the God of Wealth and Fu Lu Shou.
In order to better pass on the old craftsmanship, she incorporates modern elements into her works to attract more young people to pay attention to gourd pyrography.
The fate of Xue Gailian and the gourd began more than 20 years ago. At that time, her husband Liu Shian brought back a gourd with good appearance and thick leather from outside, which Xue Gailian loved.
In order to better preserve the gourd, she, who loved painting since childhood, painted on the gourd and placed it at home as a decoration.
From then on, Xue Gailian began to perform gourd pyrography. During this period, she also went to Shandong, Tianjin and other places to learn pyrography and gourd craftsmanship.
Since then, Xue Gailian and her family have grown gourds by themselves, and established a gourd planting and processing association to drive the local people to become rich while inheriting gourd pyrography.
"At that time, we learned that gourd pyrography is very popular among overseas people, so we decided to go out of the mountains and open up overseas markets." Xue Gailian said that family members and local people took their works to Japan, Singapore and other countries and regions to promote gourd pyrography.
Today, they can receive orders from overseas merchants just by sitting at home.
Xue Gailian introduced that he also taught the local people the skills of gourd pyrography and planting of gourds. Today, more than one hundred people have mastered the traditional handicraft of pyrography.
In addition, in order to promote and inherit this traditional culture, gourd pyrographs will be displayed in conjunction with activities such as intangible cultural heritage entering the campus and intangible cultural heritage entering the community.
The 65-year-old Xue Gailian hopes to let gourd pyrography help the local gourd to form a complete gourd industry chain under her leadership, and constantly open up new fields of gourd culture, so that more people can feel the charm of traditional Chinese folk crafts.
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