Kowloon got into a Buick Excelle sedan and went to Putian alone.

The weather in April is said to change, the original departure is also windy and sunny, to the Zhangzhou high-speed section, it actually rained heavily, the car is like walking on the water, the four wheels splashed, Kowloon had to slow down, turn on the double flash, at a speed of less than 60 kilometers per hour, it is very strange that such weather, there are a lot of cars on the road, each car is careful to keep a safe distance, for fear of carelessness, it will be thrown out entirely.

In this way, what was expected to be four hours can be reached, but it took more than six hours.

Finally saw the exit of the Arts and Crafts City, Kowloon opened the navigation, from the exit to the Arts and Crafts City, it took less than five minutes.

Putian Arts and Crafts City is a key construction project in Fujian Province in 2006, located at the Putian exit of Shenhai Expressway, with unique location conditions and extremely convenient transportation.

This Putian Arts and Crafts City is known as the largest professional handicraft trading market in China.

Arts and crafts city covers an area of 460 acres, with a total investment of 624.8 million yuan and a total construction area of 470,000 square meters, which is composed of exhibition centers, exhibition and sales areas, and public service facilities.

Among them, the exhibition center has a construction area of 27,000 square meters, an exhibition area of 303,000 square meters, and a public service supporting facilities of 140,000 square meters.

It has more than 200,000 square meters of commercial shops, which can accommodate more than 1,000 enterprises, including more than 700 stores in the jade carving, wood carving and stone carving areas, including more than 300 in the jade carving area, more than 200 in the wood carving area and more than 100 stone carvings.

Arts and crafts city to take the government-led, market-oriented mode of operation, in the form of exhibitions, wood carving, jade carving, stone carving, gold and silver jewelry, ethnic folk handicrafts and other major industries to gather, show Putian traditional crafts, by providing environmental protection, guide the integration of resources, and strive to become bigger and stronger, and finally form a base in Putian, radiation of the whole country, facing the world of large-scale handicraft market and tourism, leisure shopping center.

Speaking of arts and crafts city, we have to talk about Putian arts and crafts, Putian arts and crafts are also called Putian, has a long history, has always been known for "subtle openwork", among which the most representative Putian wood carving flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, contains a deep historical and cultural accumulation and rich traditional style.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the dead wood of the Putian wood carving industry has been rejuvenated, especially since the reform and opening up, a group of master celebrities have seized the opportunity to establish wood carving enterprises, which has promoted the rapid development of the wood carving industry in Putian.

Putian has become the country's largest domestic wood carving handicrafts main production area and distribution center.

In 2003, Putian was jointly awarded the title of "China Wood Carving City" by China Light Industry Federation and China Arts and Crafts Society.

Putian wood carving industry agglomeration is strong, but also led to the development of antique furniture, religious sculpture, jade carving, bluestone carving, Shoushan stone carving, craft weaving, gold and silver jewelry, artificial gems, lacquerware and other related industries, making arts and crafts a major characteristic industry in Putian.

Putian Arts and Crafts City was built in this context.

The red wall and gold tiles set off the dark clouds in the sky, there is no fun, Kowloon came to the jade carving area according to the address given by the other party, and looked up, the advertisements of Min Cuiyuan were hung all over the front street.

Xu Jiandong, the director of Mincuiyuan, greeted him with a smile: "Welcome, welcome." ”

The national character face, the small flat head is his characteristic, he speaks with a Putian accent, soft-spoken, and extremely magnetic.

His shop is not small, and it looks like it is more than 400 square meters.

The whole exhibition hall is designed in Chinese style, not only yellow wax stone carvings, but also a lot of jade carvings, round carvings, openwork carvings, relief carvings, which look quite good.

Director Xu told Kowloon that he was mainly an exhibition area here, and the carving area was in another place.

Jiulong first showed him the jade material he brought, and did not immediately ask him to carve, but asked him something about what kind of yellow wax stone could be carved.

Kowloon has to confirm whether the other party has two brushes, otherwise, no matter how good the seed material is, it will be messed up.

As the saying goes, there is no material that is not good for carving, only carvers who can't carve.

Director Xu also seems to see Kowloon's concerns, when talking about wax stone carving, he spoke very carefully, he said: "I have been in contact with wax stone for a while, and I have carved a lot of yellow wax works, and I feel that the most fatal problem in yellow wax carving can be divided into five types:

"The first is 'white cotton', no matter what kind of wax it is, as soon as the white cotton appears, its value immediately drops, and the ornamental effect is greatly reduced.

"The second is 'dryness', the wax has no moisture, there is no warmth, it looks very rigid, there is no aura.

"The third is the 'dirty spots', the dirty spots on the surface can be removed during carving, and the dirty spots that eat the jade meat will seriously affect the ornamental value of the product, which is especially obvious after polishing.

"The fourth is 'crack', which directly affects the effect of the product, if there is a crack, when taking the material, we will have to go to the crack, may not be able to carve the best subject matter or program, cracks in the carving because to deal with it, it can not be carved too simple, so that the carving cost increases and the effect is not good.

"The fifth is 'color', the color is good and bad, there is yang and yin, yang color gives people comfort, pleasure, and decency, and yin color gives people a dull, depressing, evil feeling, and the rational application of color is the key element that affects the success of the work. ”

Although Kowloon seems to understand whether he understands or not, he also thinks what he said is quite reasonable.

A subtle smile appeared on the corner of Master Xu's mouth, he knew that Jiulong had been convinced, and he also talked about his own opinion on the viewing standards of yellow wax stone carvings, he said: "Some people think that it is good to be like 'jade' and 'crystal', and the water head (transparency) is good, and some people think that it is better to be as warm as 'Hetian jade' and 'Tian Huang'."

"In fact, the yellow wax stone carvings should be the continuation of the appreciation standard to undertake the warmth, and now the resources of 'Hetian jade' and 'Tianhuang' have been scarce, and there is an urgent need to have another resource of the same character to fill the vacancy.

This viewing standard is also more in line with the more introverted habits in Chinese culture, focusing on the cultivation of connotation, and not advocating the appearance of gorgeous show-off.

"And the Chinese tradition is also yellow in color, so I personally think that yellow wax should be more expensive than warm, not transparent. ”

This reminded Jiulong of the wax beauty that Brother Zhao highly admired----- because of its subtle, warm and oily texture of wax, which is very different from other mineral aesthetic characteristics such as Hetian jade, jadeite, and even diamonds.

Their views are surprisingly consistent, and it is difficult to say that waxy beauty will really become mainstream in the near future.

Jiulong is completely relieved, no matter what, the other party can say so many ugly things in one mouth, which means that there is still material for water, and everything will be said after he has carved it.

Jiulong asked Director Xu to choose what to carve according to his jade situation, and he did not participate in the design.

Director Xu even said that there was no problem, this was a trivial matter, and it would be good to hand it over to him.

After solving the carving matter, Jiulong finally breathed a sigh of relief, and after saying goodbye to Director Xu and returning home, he also paid special attention to selecting warmer wax stones according to Director Xu's method.

Good material stones, basically can't be seen on the Internet, should have been intercepted by Mr. Xiao himself.

In the Yellow Wax Stone Zone of Qishi Network, there are also those who sell wax stone, saying that they sell Xinjiang wax, and Kowloon also added a few numbers and bought a few samples back.

As a result of the comparison, the quality of Xinjiang wax seems to be better and the color is richer.

It's just that a small fight can never become a big deal, whether it is Ganjiang or Xinjiang, or it is too far, there is a feeling of being controlled by others, and it is difficult for fine wax to get into your hands.

Kowloon felt that if he wanted to play, he still had to have something he was good at.

But now the most important thing is to improve your eyesight, only in this way can you find good wax stones.

To follow this path, it is necessary to have professional training.

In this regard, Mr. Wang Tianran is very good at it, ask him to take a look.

Teacher Wang smiled when he heard this: "If you want Jiulongbi training, just look for me, but this wax stone is more complicated, and we rarely play in this area, otherwise, you can see if the China Stone Association has training in this area." ”