Chapter 139 Let’s start making pots
“The first step in making a purple clay pot is to cut the appropriate amount of clay.”
Gong Zhou patted the place after arranging it. The tabletop cleared its throat, and then took the stale cooked mud: "Come on, Comrade Xu, take a closer look - this is the stale cooked mud. Now that the clay is cooked, does it feel different from the freshly made clay? "
"Well... this clay doesn't stick to your hands, and it doesn't seem to fall off easily," said Bai Miao, who has always been delicate. Miao was the first to speak - she had just seen it really, the mud was almost crushed into a big flat lump in the hands of Teacher Gong Zhou, and there were not many irregular cracks on the side.
“Yes, this is one of the important functions of banality,” Gong Zhou nodded in approval, “—it can make the properties of purple clay more stable, making it more suitable for making pots.”< br>
"Then let's make a relatively simple and basic Xi Shi pot today - this pot is round, small, and beautiful... A piece of clay should be enough for such a large pot."
"Slice up Once the mud is ready, the next step is to use tools to beat the mud into pieces - our step is called 'making mud strips'."
"What about the tool for making mud strips? It’s also our practice There is a familiar face that I have just seen in Ni Na—here, a big wooden mallet, we usually call it a wooden mallet. However, in order to save effort, I am used to looking for someone who can do better than the one used to make clay strips. It’s a little smaller, so kids with little strength can swing it.”
Gong Zhou then took out a small semi-circular and semi-square mallet, and slapped it a few times, easily slapping a ball of purple clay. It became a feature film.
“The force principle of making mud strips is not much different from that of mud refining. It is also important to try not to use just the wrist force. When making mud strips, the mud pieces should be smooth, flat, and evenly thick... You can’t It is very taboo when we are making mud strips to make lots of bumps and thick patches. ”
"It can be said that making clay strips is a dual combination of technology and physical strength - this is quite a test of the experience of the pot maker and the control of the strength of his hands every time he slaps the clay strips."
" ——The force should be even and the hand should be clean and steady. If you hesitate, the force on the mallet may not be even enough. , or the clay strips that were originally flattened are slightly deformed. "
"Of course, not all styles of purple clay teapots need to be beaten with a mallet to create suitable clay strips." Gong Zhou, who was stunned, grabbed the hammer and paused slightly, "Some styles of purple clay pots require the pot maker to use his hands on the clay. Those irregular natural lines are pinched out. "
"——The clay pieces of this kind of pot do not need to be beaten excessively. You only need to use your fingers and palms to pinch out the clay pieces of appropriate size, and then spread the clay. Simply place the piece on the table, flatten it, and use a tool to cut out the shape we need.”
< br>"The freshly made clay tablets have no regular shape. We need to use a special rectangular car and a ruler to cut it into a suitable shape - the cut clay tablets are wider than the pot diameter we need. It needs to be longer, because there is too much material and we can cut it out later, but if there is too little material, we can’t make it up, so we can only shoot it again.”
"Attention, the height of the clay piece on the body is very important - the height of the entire pot behind us has a very important relationship with the height of the clay piece."
"Well, the height of the pot body Let’s mark the clay pieces now. Some pot makers will mark them after this step. , stamp an inner wall seal on the inner wall for anti-counterfeiting purposes. Today’s Xishi pot will have many places to be slapped, so we won’t stamp it. “The next step is to print out the negative and mouth pieces,” Gong said. As Zhou talked, he knocked out four suitable pieces of clay with skillful and smooth movements, and then took The square car drew out four circles of different sizes. "There is nothing special about this step. It is the same as the previous step when making the barrel body. It is just that the shape of the drawn mud pieces is different."
“This square car looks like a compass.” Xu Yi Chi scratched his head and muttered, and Gong Zhou nodded with a smile: "Yes, the square car is a special compass used for making purple clay pottery."
"Now, we have the body, the film and the mouth Now that we have the film, it’s time to put on the body tube.”
"When we attach the body tube, upper bottom piece, and spout handle, we need to use a special adhesive. Our jargon is called 'Zi Mu', which can also be called 'Fat Mud'. "Gong Zhou spoke in a brisk tone, and casually took out a small plastic bag from the small drawer under the table next to him, which contained some dried purple sand mud.
“I deliberately didn’t let them bring out the pre-prepared mud today. I wanted to show you three children how to make the mud.”
“This piece The dried purple clay is the same material as the clay we just used to take the pot body." Gong Zhou said as he lifted the dried clay and motioned for Xu Yichi and others to squeeze it.
Seeing this, Bai Miaomiao boldly stretched out her hand first. The mud she got was dry and hard, with a subtle brick texture. It was really hard to dry.
“Zi Mu is to crush the dried purple sand mud and add water to it, so that it can naturally rehydrate into a dry paste. The process of adding water is called ‘re-Zi Mu’.” Gong Seeing that several people had squeezed the clay, Zhou threw it onto a small plate. After smashing the tool, he added some water to the plate.
"The ratio of water to mud is not fixed. The specific amount depends on the pot maker's personal experience and feel - if you put too much water, the mud will be too wet and the stick will be unstable, and the handle may become skewed; If you add too little, the mud will be too dry and won’t stick, and there’s a chance it will crack during firing.”
“Hey~ come closer and take a look at this one. It is enough to rehydrate the mud to this extent. This kind of mud is very easy to use.”
After mixing the mud, Gong Zhou waved to the people in the field, making sure that everyone was happy. Everyone could clearly see the state of the mud on the small plate, and then turned around, picked up the long pieces of mud on the table, and carefully piled them on the wooden turntable.
"The body circumference - our Xi Shi teapot looks round, so the body circumference should be larger than the bottom and mouth pieces... Probably this size is enough." Gong Zhou is good at it. He made a circle around his body - he has been a master craftsman of purple clay teapots for who knows how many years. He has long been familiar with the shape and size of various teapots, and he no longer needs to hold a ruler to carefully measure each step.
“Cut off the excess mud slices and connect the two ends - this knife looks thinner than the knife you little girls use to shave their eyebrows. It’s called 鑳 (pronounced, 'Pan') 鏰 (pronounced, 'Pan'). 'Leather') knife, we use it to cut clay flakes. This name is not very common. If you can't remember it, forget it. If you remember it, you can look it up yourself when you go back. I won't tell you. "
"Now that we have gathered the body, we start to shoot the body - when shooting, we shoot the belly first and then the bottom. Only after we finish shooting the bottom can we start to film the film again."
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