Jade Knowledge Lecture: China's famous carving craftsman Ruili craftsman

Ruili, one of the four major jewelry distribution centers in the country and one of the first "Chinese Jewelry and Jade Jewelry Characteristic Industrial Bases", enjoys many reputations such as "The Source of Chinese Jade", "Jade comes from Yunnan, Jade comes from Ruili", and "Oriental Jewelry City". Ruili, Yunnan, located on the China-Myanmar border, is rich in jade material because it borders Myanmar, the origin of jade. This has led to the formation of Ruili craftsmanship, which is famous for its beautiful colors and clever carvings.

Since the 1990s, a large number of jade carvers representing various schools have gathered in Ruili, treating Ruili as an art palace for jade carving creativity and exchanging ideas with each other. In this way, Ruili craftsmanship, which combines the strengths of northern and southern jade carving schools, with its clever carving of colors and application of art according to the shape of the jade, has become one of the unique schools in the Chinese jade carving industry.

China's jade carving culture has a long history and can be divided into southern and northern schools. The Northern School has a profound and solemn style, with exquisite craftsmanship, reflecting the flavor of the court. It has a deep foundation in figures, flowers, and utensils, and its works are pleasing to the eye and leave you with endless aftertaste. The southern style embodies an exquisite and delicate style, with upright and beautiful features. It has its own system in terms of utensils, figures, flowers, grass insects, etc., and has fine craftsmanship.

As craftsmen from the north and the south gathered in Ruili, Ruili craftsmen were eclectic and formed their own school based on the integration of the northern grandeur and southern beauty. The subject matter was more extensive, not limited to Guanyin Buddha in terms of figures, nor to flowers, birds, insects, herbs and auspicious animals in terms of decorative pieces, which greatly enriched the volume of jadeite. In terms of techniques, high relief or round carving is mostly used to make full use of the three-dimensional space of the jade raw material. The jade carvings have a stronger sense of three-dimensionality and the use of color is more obvious.

In addition to being good at choosing traditional themes such as fortune, wealth, longevity and happiness, Ruili craftsmen also combine local characteristics and actively try themes such as national culture and modern humanities. Dozens of Ruili jade carvings have won the Tiangong Award, the highest award in China's jade carving industry.

Ruili craftsmanship has made great breakthroughs in carving form and content compared with traditional craftsmanship, and has the following main characteristics. The processing is grand, which is due to the relatively low price and sufficient supply of raw materials. Yunnan workers generally have a lot of style in large pieces.

The finished product looks natural and seamless, which is the most important and distinctive feature of Ruili craftsmanship. Ruili craftsmen's pursuit of art is to retain as much of the original natural charm of the material as possible during the processing, and to incorporate the craftsmanship into the shape of the material itself. Instead of using labor to press the materials, we look for the best way to combine the two to process them.

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