Jingtai is the year name of Zhu Qiyu in the hit drama "The Legend of the Female Doctor and Concubine Ming". Cloisonné is definitely inseparable from Zhu Qiyu. The emperor liked this handicraft very much, participated in the design of patterns, the choice of colors, and even the workshop of production was moved into the palace, so this craft reached an unprecedented level in the Jingtai years, and the color of the production was mainly blue, so people called it "cloisonne".

Cloisonné was born in the imperial palace, is an important part of the royal family, is the main furnishings of the palace hall, and is also the treasure of the town hall. The Forbidden City's Jinluan Treasure Palace, or the Guozijian Piyong Palace, the Summer Palace, the Paiyun Palace, etc., in these palaces of the emperor's honor, the jewel-like light of cloisonné is always amazing.

Cloisonné is one of the famous special crafts in China. It is a handicraft with bright colors made of copper tires, glued with various patterns on copper wires on copper tires, and then filled with colors in various forms of small grids made of copper wires, after welding, polishing and other processes, and finally fired into kilns.

The cloisonné glaze changes with the times. The main raw material of cloisonne in the Ming Dynasty is enamel, and its colors are blue, red, yellow, green, black, and white. After firing, the glaze of the utensils is thick and the color is crystal clear.

Most of the cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty did not use enamel, but used color glaze, and its glaze lacked brightness. During the Qianlong period, the color of cloisonné was most common in yellow and white. White is the white of the canal stone, yellow is a dry yellow, and the later yellow is green or red. Viewing cloisonné can get a unique spiritual enjoymentCloisonne is a work of art, with metallic brightness, different from porcelain and lacquerware. Compared with porcelain, porcelain has pottery fetus, porcelain glaze, and the best is blue and white porcelain, which is bright and delicate in color and smooth.

Cloisonné closely combines the ductility of copper with the characteristics of glaze, some are solemn and generous, and some are slender, complex and advanced. As the saying goes: look at the shape from a distance and see the flowers closely. There are also different styles of patterns, and flowers and patterns can be used to express various artistic shapes rigorously and delicately with silk work. The glazing can also be colored according to the requirements of the modeling pattern.

Cloisonné art includes plastic art, decorative art, environmental art, and space art, so the method of appreciation is different from others. In addition, the metal has the characteristics of resplendent gold, which makes it particularly precious.

If porcelain is as fresh and elegant as jasmine, then cloisonne must be a beautiful peony flower noble atmosphere, although they have their own merits, but unlike porcelain is that the cloisonne production process is more complex, and the shape is more varied.

Cloisonné is born with copper, decorated with colored glaze, gorgeous in shape and bright in color, and is known as "a piece of cloisonne, ten pieces of official kilnware".

If blue and white porcelain is as fragrant as jasmine, then cloisonné is as beautiful and noble as a peony. What is so fascinating about such a dazzling object?

Folklore has it that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the palace caught fire, and the Jinluan Hall and all the treasures were burned to ashes, but there was an extra colorful and shining vase in the ruins. The emperor thought that the treasure was a godsend, and recruited famous craftsmen from all over the world to make this thing, but no one could solve it.

In the end, the first craftsman in the capital, "Skillful Li", said that Nuwa Niangniang was dressed in a xia dress and stepped on auspicious clouds to give her a dream: "The treasure vase is like a flower and shines, and it is all planted by skillful hands. "Skillful Hands Li" penetrated this dream and realized the cloisonné production process.

"It is not allowed that the white flowers do not bloom, it is difficult for butterflies to come without gossip, and they are not affected by the grinding of water-soaked stones, how can they stay in spring", which is the key steps of cloisonne production: filigree, point blue, burn blue, grinding, and gilding.

Cloisonné technique is exquisite, and it requires great patience, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a poem praised, "in the stunt high world, overwhelming the five continents cloisonne." "That is to say, the cloisonné process is complicated.

Slow work produces meticulous work, and the national treasure of cloisonné benefits from ingenuity.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, one day, Lin Huiyin accidentally bought a cloisonne vase from an old antique stall in Liulichang.

The old stall owner said to Lin Huiyin: "This is authentic cloisonné, you can't see it anywhere else." Beijing's cloisonné has been lively for hundreds of years, and it is now considered extinct. ”

When Lin Huiyin heard this, he couldn't help but worry about the fate of this traditional craft.

As a result, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng set up a teaching and research group of arts and crafts in the Department of Construction of Tsinghua University to rescue the endangered cloisonne craft, and also designed and painted a number of new patterns.

Although the Arts and Crafts Teaching and Research Group of the Department of Construction of Tsinghua University has only existed for a short time, it has played a vital role in the restoration, inheritance and development of cloisonné craftsmanship.

At that time, the famous Soviet ballerina Ulanova got a cloisonné bottle with a flying pattern and exclaimed: "This is a new gift representing the new China, it is so beautiful!" ”

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cultural level and artistic accomplishment of cloisonne artists have been greatly improved, especially after the 60s of the 20th century, the continuous enrichment of professional and technical personnel has effectively improved the comprehensive quality of the practitioners.

The cloisonne industry has conscientiously inherited and attracted the advantages of traditional cloisonne with stable and rich shape, full pattern, bright color and fine silk workmanship, and has resumed the production of traditional products such as furnaces, tripods, pots, three-dimensional beasts, wax tables, and traditional products such as six-petal bottles, plum bottles, and begonia bottles, which were considered the most beautiful and difficult to do in the past.

This new attempt has achieved good results, not only maintaining the quaint style of the original, but also enriching the varieties of cloisonné.

In 1959, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, designers and artists created a novel "Goldfish and Lotus Fish Tank" for the Great Hall of the People.

In the 70s of the 20th century, he designed and produced rare large-scale products such as "Lion Furnace", "Pavilion Furnace", "Lion Rolling Hydrangea Plate" and "Peacock Pot".

According to the principle of "applicable, economical and beautiful", the cloisonne process continues to develop in the direction of combining decoration and practicality, and has created all kinds of smoking utensils, stationery, lamps, tea sets, chopstick rests, business card boxes, jewelry boxes, seasoning utensils, electronic table clocks, wall hangings, tables and stools, screens, trophies and other products, with novel and beautiful shapes and strong national style.

In addition, there are many excellent works that reflect the theme of real life, such as: the fresh and enthusiastic "Yongmei Insertion", the romantic "Steel Vase", as well as "Yan'an Vase", "Eight Views of the Capital", etc., which are too numerous to mention, which are not only full of the atmosphere of the times, but also have a high degree of ideology and artistry.

The number of products has increased by hundreds of times compared with before the founding of the People's Republic of China, with more than 1,000 varieties and specifications, and the quality has also been significantly improved, and they are sold to hundreds of countries and regions on five continents in the world.

Cloisonné is also often presented to VIPs from various countries as valuable gifts by relevant state departments, which enhances international exchanges and unity.

The first National Games of China and the Asian-African, Asian-African-Latin American Table Tennis Invitational Tournament all used cloisonné as the trophy, which reflects the honor of the winner for its ancient and famous artistic value.

On June 5, 1997, the "Putian Tongqing" pair bottles designed and produced by Beijing Enamel Factory, each with a height of 1.8 meters, a maximum diameter of 0.8 meters and a weight of 192 kilograms, was presented by the Beijing Municipal Government to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, and a grand departure ceremony was held.

In April 1998, the 850th anniversary of the founding of Moscow, a pair of cloisonné bottles produced by the Beijing Enamel Factory were selected by the Beijing Municipal Government as a gift to the city of Moscow to congratulate.

In 2005, cloisonné craftsmen resurrected the casting technique and produced the "Buddha Treasure Tianlong Babu" taken from the Buddhist classics with a combination of eight works, each 48 cm high and 18 cm in diameter, with a total of more than 50 figures. This kind of cast cloisonné is made of copper pouring fetal shape, and then filigree, glazed, blue, gilded, showing the characteristics of solid, heavy, complex and changeable gas type.

In the past, the cloisonné tire making process completely relied on workers to smash the copper sheet into various tire shapes with a hammer, which was inefficient and labor-intensive, and the products made were often not standardized.

In 1958, the workers of Beijing Enamel Factory trial-produced a rolling machine (also known as "rolling machine") suitable for cloisonné, and after continuous research and improvement, from the beginning can only roll small bottles to can roll large bottles, so that the productivity of the entire tire making process has been greatly improved.

Because the machine tire can be curled, the billet shape is not only regular, but also due to the reduction of the solder interface, the black seam of the bottle mouth is also reduced, which improves the product quality.

In the past, the firing products had sand holes and pores, but later the process of cleaning the carcass was added, and the impurities on the body were removed with sulfuric acid and then transferred to the next process.

In the late 90s of the 20th century, the filigree process practical workers developed their own ground-making machines and swim bladder machines, some of the usual large and standardized silk workers have also partially realized semi-mechanization, some patterns such as cloud head, plum head, peach blossom, hook lotus, eight-character code, etc., also changed to mold production.

The point blue is changed to the method of squeezing the tube, so that the point blue efficiency of some patterns is improved, and the quality is guaranteed. The glaze is crushed by an electric ball mill, which not only saves man-hours but also makes the glaze more refined. Since the early 70s of the 20th century, the coal furnace for welding has been gradually replaced by electric furnace and petroleum liquefied gas furnace, and since 2003, Beijing Enamel Factory has used natural gas that is environmentally friendly and energy-saving through technological transformation.

It solves the old and difficult problem of "ten blue and nine sands" in history that seriously affects product quality. The polishing process of cloisonné has been using a manpower grinder for hundreds of years, and in the 50s of the 20th century, Beijing Enamel Factory modified a manpower grinder, which was driven by electricity to make the polishing process go to a semi-machine.

Later, with the assistance of the Fifth Beijing Design Institute, the electric grinding machine was successfully trial-produced. After continuous improvement, as well as the use of cloth wheels to light, so that cloisonne products have reached "flat, straight, light, slippery, bright", the quality is better than any period in history, until modern times, cloisonne really entered the market, has been a well-known artwork.

In accordance with international practice, the leaders and spouses of APEC hosts in previous years have presented special commemorative gifts that reflect the local history and culture or represent the local natural features to the leaders and spouses of the economies participating in APEC.

The gift to the leaders is the "Four Seas Shengping" cloisonné appreciation bottle, the body of the bottle is 38 centimeters high, which is the same proportion of the height of the Temple of Heaven as 38 meters. The maximum diameter of the bottle is 21 cm, representing the 21 economies of APEC.

The slender neck of the bottle is elegant and graceful, the water ripples on the turquoise bottle body, and the round APEC monogram, Temple of Heaven and other symbols are in the center. The relevant person in charge of Gongmei Group said that the "Four Seas Shengping" cloisonne appreciation bottle was jointly created by seven national and Beijing arts and crafts masters in China.

Using the cloisonné process, one of the "four famous Dans" of Beijing Arts and Crafts, and taking the red glazed jade pot spring bottle hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing as the prototype, it innovatively combines the three traditional enamel processes of painting enamel technology, chisel enamel and cloisonné enamel.

The relevant person in charge of Gongmei Group said that the shape of the vessel is lit on all sides, surrounded by relief auspicious water lines, symbolizing the "four seas", implying the Pacific Rim, "bottle" is "flat", and the whole is "four seas are level".

The pattern of the opening part is painted by enamel technology, pure hand-painted. On the front is the logo of this APEC meeting, on the back is the APEC venue at Yanqi Lake in Beijing, and on both sides are the Temple of Heaven, a landmark building in Beijing, and the Mutianyu Great Wall in Huairou respectively.

The bottle is packaged in a champagne-coloured leather case and printed with the words "Gift from the President of the People's Republic of China". The package is also equipped with a scroll-shaped silk manual in Chinese and English, explaining in detail the material, specifications, craftsmanship and meaning of the gift.

On the 15th, known as the "head of the furnace", the cloisonne masterpiece "Dingli Tianjin Steel Furnace", which lasted more than a year, finally fell grandly in the headquarters building of Hebei Jinxi Iron and Steel Group. This work is 5.99 meters high and 3.39 meters in diameter, which is specially designed and produced by Beijing Hanyi Huang Cloisonne Arts and Crafts Co., Ltd., a member of Beijing Gongmei United Enterprise Group, for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Jinxi Iron and Steel Group.

On the day of the completion of the work, the Beijing Arts and Crafts Industry Association, the Beijing Arts and Crafts Society, and the Beijing Gongmei United Enterprise Group jointly invited important guests such as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, the Palace Museum and many masters of the Chinese cloisonne industry to witness the birth of the "Dinglijin Steel Furnace" and appreciate the cloisonne furnace with the highest height and largest diameter so far.

Today's cloisonné is also a national treasure. In the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Conference, *** personally selected the Temple of Heaven Prayer Hall and the same scale of the "Four Seas Shengping" cloisonne appreciation bottle as a national gift.