The current jewelry market is mainly based on Western simple and bright style jewelry, and the jewelry processing industry also replaces manual labor with machines, so it is really possible to go through the road of Chinese retro jewelry, which is mainly based on labor. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

But even if it can get through, most of it is not a small enterprise like Yicheng that has no foundation. But if the heart is not so big, just pick one of the small branches, Li Yi thinks that it should still be possible to try.

In fact, in the Chinese jewelry process, there are still some traditional techniques that are very valuable. It's like burning blue, filigree inlay, in fact, it is not worse than the current jade carving and cloisonne, but there are too few people who know this precious craft, and the jewelry style conflicts with modern clothing, and it can't be sold at a price, so it is slowly dying out.

Li Yi pondered all the way, and soon, they rushed to Mr. Ota's jewelry store.

Ota's jewelry store is the best location and the largest area of these antique stores selected by Misa Aida, because here in Ota, the main business is modern jewelry, and antique jewelry accounts for less than a third, about five or six counters.

"Aitian is here, I don't know what to buy this time? Come, come and show you, this time our family Ota found a good thing, and I specifically told me to keep it for you. As soon as I entered the door, a kind-looking lady greeted Misa Aida.

"Oh? Mrs. Naoko, what good things did Mr. Ota have prepared for me this time? ”

"A hairpin with a little emerald, I heard that it was a good thing in the Qing Palace back then, and the concubine wore it."

Aitian's face showed a hint of surprise, but he hadn't forgotten to greet Li Yi, "Mr. Li Yi, let's go over and have a look together?" If you're interested, I'll leave it to you this time, how about it? ”

Li Yi raised his eyebrows, he was still thinking about the traditional craftsmanship just now, but he didn't expect to see the same soon, a little cui, but it's a good thing, I haven't seen it before!

Diancui craft is a traditional Han gold and silver jewelry craft, which first originated in the Han Dynasty, reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, and almost died out in modern times.

Emerald, that is, the feathers of kingfishers. Dotted emerald jewelry is made of gold or gilded metal to make a base with different patterns, and then the bright blue feathers on the kingfisher's back are carefully inlaid on the base.

The jewelry made by this process is brilliant and flowing, never fades, and looks very beautiful.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Diancui jewelry was generally a luxury in the court. In fact, as early as the Song Dynasty, the famous great poet Su Dongpo once wrote a palindromic "Bodhisattva Man", the "cui" in the first two sentences refers to the jade jewelry.

Emerald mantle cloud lop ear. Earlobes, cloud mantles, oblique and emerald. The Spring Festival Gala slept in a drowsy manner. Sleepy late spring.

Fine-flowered pear snow pendant. Falling to find the flower fine. Who's thinking about it. People who read shallow cheeks.

There are also ancient jewelry such as the phoenix crown of the Empress Xiaoduan of the Wanli Emperor in the collection of the Palace Museum, the five phoenixes with silk inlaid jewelry, the silver-gilded squirrel knotted hairpin, and the phoenix flowers with emerald inlaid beads.

However, because of the use of kingfisher feathers, coupled with the major changes in traditional clothing after entering the industrial age, the extinction of the emerald craft has become an irreversible trend.

In fact, in the late Qing Dynasty, because of the rarity of kingfisher feathers, there was a process of using peacock feathers, dyed goose feathers, coarse paper, blue satin ribbons and other materials instead of kingfisher feathers, but the effect was far less than that of real dotted emerald jewelry.

The hairpin found by Ota is indeed a real piece of emerald jewelry, and it is also a relatively precious soft emerald.

The soft emerald is the emerald feathers used in the kingfisher, which are the finer feathers on the kingfisher. Corresponding to this is the hard emerald, which refers to the large feathers on the wings and tail feathers of the kingfisher. Because of the relatively large number, there are about 28 in total, so as early as that time, the price of soft jadeite would be about twice as expensive as the same style of hard jadeite.

"Mrs. Naoko, how do you sell this hairpin?" Aida Misa could see at a glance that Li Yi had taken a fancy to this piece of jewelry, so she didn't wait for him to remind her, so she asked the price directly.

"This piece is called the beaded gourd flower butterfly dotted emerald hairpin, which is a real palace craft, so the price may be a bit expensive."

"It's okay, good things are like this, like the burnt blue bun last time."

Mrs. Naoko smiled knowingly, "It's going to be a little expensive, but if Aida wants to buy it, it's going to be a little cheaper, so it's 3.7 million yen." ”

"Thank you, Mrs. Naoko." Aida Misa took out the credit card and handed it to Naoko, and while she was swiping the card, she quietly said to Li Yi: "Later, Mr. Li, you can pay me the original price, of course, if you don't like it, I will collect this by myself." ”

Li Yi smiled and expressed his gratitude, this is a treasure in traditional Chinese craftsmanship, naturally it is impossible to talk about politeness, talk about what gentlemen do not take advantage of.

After getting this piece of jewelry specially prepared for Aida Misa, Li Yi began to carefully look at the other jewelry of the Ota family.

Originally, he thought that a piece of emerald jewelry was probably the better thing in the store, but he didn't expect that after just looking at it for a while, he saw several things that were much better than this one. It's just that the price of these things is often tens of millions, and it seems that the little emerald hairpin should have been specially prepared for Aitian after the other party measured Aitian's purchasing power.

"Mrs. Naoko, may you help me take out this filigree inlaid bracelet and take a look?"

Li Yi stopped at a counter, he fell in love with a wide-brimmed bracelet inlaid with filigree, not for collection, but to buy a souvenir for Lu Ningshuang.

"No problem! You're a friend of Aida, right? If you want to buy it, I can also give you a discount. ”

Li Yi hurriedly thanked him, then picked up the bracelet and looked at it carefully.

Filigree inlay is also a traditional jewelry craft, also known as fine gold, which was mainly used in the production of royal ornaments in the past.

Filigree inlay is mainly composed of two parts, one part is "filigree", usually using gold, silver, copper as raw materials, first through drawing, it is made into a maximum diameter of 4 mm, the minimum diameter of 0.2 mm of metal filament, and then through the cloisonné, filament, weaving, welding and other processes, these filaments are woven into a variety of jewelry.

Inlay is to make metal pieces into trays and claw-shaped grooves, inlaid with pearls, gemstones and other objects, and finally combined with filigree to make a complex and precious filigree inlay jewelry.

Li Yi's fancy wide-sided bracelet, the diameter of the filigree used is definitely not more than 0.3 mm, and it is the metal tray used for inlay, which is also the shape of a flower woven from the filigree, which is inlaid with more than a dozen small particles of purple tourmaline, made into the shape of a stamen, which looks very beautiful.

"This piece is also from the Qing Palace, although the purple tourmaline is not valuable, but because of the process, it will be slightly more expensive than Aitian's, 4.8 million."

Li Yi nodded, not to mention the difficulty between the emeralds and the filigree inlay, just look at this bracelet that is only woven by a few tenths of a millimeter of gold wire, it has not been damaged at all after so many years, and there is not even a single bent gold wire, it is worth this price.

Putting this bracelet aside, Li Yi continued to choose, and after a while, he fell in love with a silver-burnt blue inlaid white jade and other miscellaneous treasures.

This Ruyi, with its clumsy shape, shows a variety of colors such as blue, white, green, and yellow, and looks a little magnificent.

"It's just an itch, and it's actually made like this, but I can still take a fancy to it, is it, deep down in my heart, there is also the potential of this super?"

Li Yi carefully looked at the various colored gems inlaid on Ruyi, but Naoko didn't know what he was thinking at the moment, and said with a smile: "Mr. Li is definitely a very knowledgeable master, and this Ruyi's burning blue craft is definitely the best one in our store......"

"Oh, burnt blue!" Li Yi smiled bitterly, and then suddenly, what he liked was this wishful burnt blue, how could he suddenly wander and be attracted by those variegated gemstones?

Speaking of which, burning blue is also a traditional national craft of the same level as dot cui and filigree inlay. This burnt blue, in fact, is the same as cloisonné, which belongs to a kind of enamel color.

But the biggest difference between it and cloisonne is that it can only be burned on the surface of silverware, and the effect of burning is more than cloisonné with a flowing luster.

"Since Mrs. Naoko has said so, then take this one too."

"Thank you, Mr. Li, I will charge you 6.2 million for this piece."

Li Yi nodded, he already had a rough idea of the price level of this store. Overall, it is slightly lower than the market price, and it seems that it is indeed for the sake of Aitian's face and gives them a cheaper.

It's just that, compared with filigree inlay and burnt blue, Li Yi wants to collect more emerald jewelry. Because the first two, although they are rare at present, but the craftsmanship has been handed down after all, if you look carefully, you can still see some, and because of the integration of modern technology, the quality may be better than those ancient jewelry.

But Diancui is different, the kingfisher is now a second-class protected animal, and foreign resources are also very tight, so the real Diancui jewelry has become extinct, and it can only be found from the old jewelry. If you don't take advantage of the current collection to collect some, it will only be less and less in the future.

"Mrs. Naoko, I don't know where you got that little emerald hairpin from, and this kind of ornament?"

"Oh? Mr. Li is also interested in Diancui jewelry? However, we are very sorry that we did not have a good way to acquire it. ”

"Oh, forget it, I originally said that I wanted to exchange the handscrolls of Lingchuan Shixuan for a batch."

As soon as Li Yi's words fell, he heard a deep male voice behind him,

"Hishikawa Shixuan? Is it the same Hishikawa Shixuan master who created ukiyo-e? (To be continued.) )