"Cork painting is a good interpretation of the 'craftsman spirit', most of the craftsmen have a skill in their lives, and they have their own strengths in the carving of buildings, animals, plants, people, and utensils, and a work requires at least two or three people to work together." Chen Guo said that the old craftsmen have a set of hand-made carving knives, and it will take a lifetime to use them. As long as their hands don't shake, they're willing to keep doing it.

After lobbying 7 cork painters and 1 designer, Hu Juan's studio was finally established in 2017.

These cork painters and designers have been making cork paintings since they were teenagers, and the youngest of them is currently 58 years old. Affectionately known as "Brother Ju", Lin Ju was the last director of the former state-owned cork painting factory in Fuzhou, who witnessed the rise and fall of the cork painting industry, and he is still willing to exert his spare heat for the exploration and development of new cork painting.

The cork paintings, which are labeled with the three treasures of Fuzhou crafts and the "label" of national intangible cultural heritage, have been loved by national leaders and presented to foreign guests as a national gift.

Since the heyday of the seventies and eighties of the last century, after the formation of the product system, due to few breakthroughs, cork painting has gradually given people a solidified stereotype, and gradually drifted away from the aesthetics of the times. Just like many traditional old crafts in China, their practitioners are also aging day by day, and they are in a dilemma of lack of talent.

Hu Juan believes that if it is not broken, it will not stand. "In the transformation of old things, only by constantly adjusting the form and aesthetics, keeping pace with the times, and making bold innovations, can cork painting and other traditional arts maintain their vigorous vitality and be passed on. It is necessary to interpret the spirit of craftsmanship with a lifetime skill. ”

With thoughts, she began to explore again and again. For example, for the hanging frame products, the form breaks the traditional cork painting has always been full of expression, draws on the elegant artistic conception of Song painting to win more with less, and combines cork painting with calligraphy and painting to present a new style, which complements the modern soft furnishing space; For three-dimensional ornament products, pay attention to its practicability, so that cork painting set artistic value and practical value in one.

Hu Juan said that at the beginning, she tried to "subtract" in the creation of four banners of plum, pine, bamboo and willow cork, giving up the traditional and complicated depiction, making the lines more concise, and boldly leaving the frame blank.

"The masters have been engaged in the creation of cork paintings for most of their lives, and they have long formed a fixed thinking and paid attention to traditional production techniques. At first, they even questioned me for 'cutting corners'. Hu Juan said.

She tried her best to convince the master that this is "reducing the amount without reducing the amount of work", a good work not only needs a good production process foundation, but also needs a good performance tension, excellent framing technology, and packaging that matches the product positioning, in order to present a colorful effect.

After the completion of the new works, the masters stared for a long time without speaking, and the original traditional single cork painting also had other combinations, bringing a new experience. After more than a year of running-in, the old artists gradually changed their old concepts and tried to accept new ideas and challenges.

Born into a family of cork painters, Lin Bing is good at pushing the boundaries and has unique insights into the composition and production techniques of cork paintings, and he served as the designer of the studio.

The cork painting "Luozhu Merry" produced by the studio at the request of customers, 14.5 meters long and 0.9 meters high, takes the eight scenes of Luozhou as the performance content, from data collection to field collection, from original design to physical works, the old artists spent more than 4 months, so that the cork painting industry "born" the largest work so far.

The original >> for making cork paintings