Twenty years ago, a " Kangxi Wechat Private Interview " attracted thousands of people.
Twenty years later, when the crew reunited, a behind-the-scenes story was revealed, which made countless people sigh that it is more legendary than the plot. There is a scene in the
episode story "Zisha Ji", which is about the Yixing Zisha teapot is famous all over the world, and it has also become the "tribute pot" used by the royal family.
According to the rules, royal items cannot be reserved, but Kangxi saw a few lines of small characters in a broken purple clay pot .
As a result, a huge injustice in the Yixing purple sand industry is involved.
In order to continue searching for clues, Yifei dropped countless purple clay pots.
These are the props of the crew. Because of the close-up shots, many purple clay pots were purchased with great care.
, but the market price at the time was no more than 300 yuan.
During the filming period, Zhao Liang, who plays Sandek , often visits the prop room.
did not expect that 20 years later, the value of this prop pot would skyrocket.
He revealed that a knowledgeable friend visited his house and saw this pot, and found that it turned out to be the work of a provincial master.
"Props that cost a few hundred yuan back then now cost tens of thousands."
This is Zhao Liang's original words.
At first, I was quite skeptical, until I saw this sentence:
"What is the best jewel in the world, Yixing Zisha is the most valuable."
After reading her story, you will understand how awesome the "Purple Clay Pot" that was "followed" by Sandekzi.
01
Her name is Orange, the first time I met her, she accidentally swiped her Douyin .
When I found out that this young and beautiful girl turned out to be a purple sand artist, I was quite surprised. There is a saying in
:
"There is only one pot in China, and only one place of origin, in Dingshu Town, Yixing, Jiangsu." It takes seven or eight years to study art.
Influenced by TV and movies, laymen watching pottery comes with a "romantic" filter.
In fact, the entire production process is not as comfortable as we imagined.
A purple clay pot looks small, but its birth has to go through "nine, nine and eighty-one difficulties".
From the natural differentiation of mineral materials, to the grinding and sieving of sand powder, to the beating and shaping of mud blocksAfter completing this series of processes, the production of the purple clay teapot can officially begin.
to complete a fully handmade Zisha teapot, as well as "13-character formulas":
hit, surround, up, cast, complex, clear, rub, pass, install, twist, light, push, knock.
Every step is delicate work.
This is not yet design thinking time.
The preparation process for removing sand powder will take one or two months depending on the difficulty factor of each work.
and the particularity of the material and molding of purple sand, the heater cannot be turned on in winter, and the air conditioner cannot be turned on in summer, which is a torment for the craftsman. The green body made by
needs to be fired, and there are too many uncontrollable factors in the various changes in the kiln, and shrinkage, cracking or other defects are very likely.
Different mud materials have different properties and kiln temperatures, resulting in high and low yields.
, such as purple clay , is the most common type of purple clay , and it is also the most stable clay material. The shrinkage ratio after firing is generally around 12%, and the scrap rate is also around 10%. In bad luck, even a batch of pots did not burn well.
In the hot summer, I insist on burning purple sand with firewood
Orange once took a selfie with a short film "Dare to ask where is the road", which is full of ups and downs of grassroots practitioners in the purple sand industry.
A young man has been in the arts for 3 years. Because he has no income for a long time, he went to work in a milk tea shop.
He smiled and said, "My youth is wasted."
An employee of an electronics factory, because of exposure to purple sand, went to apprentice to seek art.
Now that 5 years have passed, he is still working in the electronics factory every day. Zisha craftsmanship can only occasionally take orders, which cost 10 yuan per piece.
once was full of blood, and finally turned into a long sigh: "It's still safe to work in the factory."
There are still many people who come to Yixing with dreams, but in the end they have to bow their heads in front of reality. Many people are struggling to make ends meet. , was forced to change jobs.
So you can imagine how amazing it is for a young girl who has been in this industry for many years and still doesn't give up.
thought of a sentence:
"It is the best state of life to be able to find one's love in everything in the world, and to be able to fill it with all one's life." Few.
02
In order to go down the road of Zisha, Orange has made a lot of efforts.
found that a manpower was lacking, she and her friends set up her own studio "Eight is Beauty".
After graduating from the design industry, Juzi once painted thangkas in Lhasa for a period of time. She learned that "eight" means completeness in Tibetan culture, and Juzi and her friends also hope that their purple sand road will be successful. more complete.
"Eight isBeauty" is taking a small but refined route.
The teams of the same size in the industry are basically more than 50 people, and they have been kept within 10 people. Everyone in the
team is a strong soldier, including graduates from the Painting and Calligraphy Department of the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as talents majoring in pottery.
Most of them are "children of aristocratic families". Their family has been making Zisha for generations, and the blood of Zisha artists is flowing in their bodies.
and in the operation of the entire team, they intend to learn from others' strengths, gather a group of pioneering ceramicists, and bring their artistic concepts and works to the short video and live broadcast room.
and they cooperate with both grassroots pottery makers and many masters.
For example, the national-level arts and crafts teacher Shuangyuan, the representative of contemporary ceramics Wu Zhongyuan, and Zhang Ye, the gold medal winner of the " Earth Award " ceramic works competition...
You are on the "eight is beauty" Douyin, all You can see the figures of these masters.
Sometimes they will also be a guest in the "Eight is Beauty" Douyin live broadcast room to interact with fans.
For traditional craftspeople, you may have a stereotype, , that their lives are relatively monotonous.
is a young artist in the new era. Like all ordinary young people, Orange likes fashion and pursues trends. As soon as the short video
came out, Juzi created his own studio's Douyin account to share the daily life of purple sand making.
These young craftsmen have found a piece of paradise of their own.
They are willing to face the camera and share their works with you, and they are keenly aware of the changes in the way people shop driven by short videos and live broadcasts.
So, a group of people broke into Douyin e-commerce with enthusiasm.
at the beginning, due to cognitive bias.
Someone compared some machine-made purple clay pots on the Internet and thought their prices were too high.
is not. As
said earlier, how rare is a hand-made purple sand work, and more importantly, the cost of purple sand has been limited by the material ( original ore purple sand ) and the production cycle for so many years.
Not to mention, Orange and their team's works not only maintain tradition and classics, but also insist on iteration and innovation.
They have a lot of classic works, such as the Ming and Qing flower and bird series, the ancient rhyme and fragrance, even under a high-powered camera, still can withstand countless stares.
also has a lot of creative works. For example, they will make some purple clay pots with animals as the theme, which not only breaks everyone's cognition of conventional purple clay shapes, but also adds fun to play on the basis of satisfying practicality.
will also draw inspiration from classic literary works for a cultural collision between ancient and modern Chinese and foreign. For example,
combines planet B612 in The Little Prince with Natsume Soseki "IThe orange cat in "It's a Cat" is combined to make a "Meow Star" purple sand pot.
These works are very popular, and they are basically sold out as soon as they come out of the kiln.
Ming and Qing flower and bird clay paintings have become the most popular in their studio.
Orange and her team insist on orderly inheritance.
Their requirements for their own creations are:
not only must understand the core of the beauty of objects, but also understand the aesthetics, maintain the sensitivity of thinking, maintain the sensitivity to any element in life, and keep in mind the aesthetics of contemporary people, and constantly create new , constantly breaking the limits of their own thinking.
"The era is developing, and each era has its own aesthetic orientation and way of life, and our innovation in Zisha works is to be closer to our own era, better integrate into the contemporary crowd, and better. Express, this is the reason why excellent works can resonate."
Today, the "eight is beauty" Douyin e-commerce business is becoming more and more prosperous, maintaining high repurchase and high praise, and has sold 378,000 in the past two years. A tea set, fans also exceeded 131,000.
What you did in March and April, July and August have your own answers.
All the way hard, all the way to sing.
Orange and her team finally ushered in their own highlight moment.
03
Zisha, as a branch of pottery art, does not attract as much attention as everyone thinks, otherwise there would not be so many practitioners in trouble.
However, because Douyin is a platform with a huge user base and the rise of Douyin e-commerce, more people bought their first pots here and began to pay attention to and understand the Zisha culture.
I checked the news. In 2021, the total economic volume of Yixing Ceramics enterprises will be 17.1 billion yuan, and the transaction volume involving e-commerce will be nearly 10 billion yuan, and 15.46 million pieces of purple sand works will be sent from Yixing to the whole country and even the whole year. all around the world. The huge potential of
is being released through platforms like Douyin e-commerce. The achievements of
"Eight is Beauty" is a microcosm.
A live broadcast can sell more than 2,000 purple sand works.
In the just-concluded "Douyin 921 Good Things Festival", Orange and the team sold more than 13,000 pieces of purple sand tea sets in just 12 days.
Today, Juzi, a small team of about 10 people, has seen a significant increase in everyone's income.
At the same time, more and more studios such as "Eight is Beauty" are opening stores on Douyin e-commerce, which also drives a large number of practitioners engaged in the production of purple sand pottery .
Central Broadcasting Network released information in September 2021: "In Dingshu Town, Yixing, there are more than 100,000 employees in Zisha and its supporting industries." I believe that in the future, more and more people will be forced to leave the industry because of their livelihoods less.
However, the higher up the climb, the more cautious Orange and her team became.
Orange often reminds himself:
"Mentality is really important. E-commerce is ups and downs, today the live broadcast room is crowded, and tomorrow may be deserted, so it is very important to maintain a peaceful attitude, after all, ups and downs are natural Well."
This is highly consistent with the spirit of a Zisha artist.
In learning purple sand mud, she gained four words "can be hidden".
In mud refining, some sand grains can be hidden and smoothed down, so they don't stand out. This is an eastern philosophy: "learning from nature".
treat everything with a normal heart, and do things in an orderly manner and move forward slowly.
A corner of the "Eight is Beauty" studio
And Orange has repeatedly emphasized that they have always adhered to "product thinking" when doing e-commerce.
In this era, there are thousands of marketing routines, but sincerity never goes out of style.
only really put the product first, respect everyone who likes your work, not treat them as an ID, but every fresh individual. Go for a good work that they feel is worth the money when they receive it, and can hold up to countless stares. At the same time,
provides long-term, continuous and complete after-sales service. It is not a cold mechanical reply like a machine, but a combination of empathy, empathy and kindness.
I read a reader's message to "Eight is Beauty":
"These delicate things give me a new perspective on life, they make me feel that life is so beautiful. There are so many disappointments, and having something so delicate and simple to accompany me is like a ray of sunshine shining into my heart."
So, I finally understood a sentence:
"One person can do one thing well. It's hard, and it's even harder to do one thing well all the time."
What's difficult is not the skill, but the heart.
04
"Eight is Beauty" in the Douyin e-commerce data, there is a particularly interesting detail: 72% of
buyers are women.
This is an accident and a necessity. Most of the works of
"Eight is Beauty" were designed by Tangzi herself, and she also participated in the creation of other works.
Therefore, it may be the aesthetics from a female perspective that resonates with female buyers.
In addition, as a rare female artist in the purple sand industry, Orange has done deep thinking.
Over the years, few people have specially made a pot for women, and she is willing to do such an attempt, because women are inherently more sensitive to and appeal to "beauty".
Orange is in the studio
This reminds me of Douyin e-commerce's "Looking for a Companion, Walking with Her" project.
"Looking for Companions" is the growth base of Douyin e-commerce creators, dedicated to discovering high-quality talents and merchants, and helping them achieve longer-term development on the platform through special support programs such as the "Seeing Crafts Program".
"Walking With Her" pays more attention to female e-commerce experts, telling the stories of women realizing their dreams and bringing value to the society in Douyin e-commerce, helping female creators to gain more attention and opportunities, and exploring with them on the road of entrepreneurship More new possibilities.
Orange said she felt a deep sense of goodwill from the project. It makes all content creators pay more attention to the female group, and focuses more on the emotional resonance of women, and also makes her more firm in her direction - to make more women fall in love with drinking tea with purple sand.
Orange also has a vision.
She hopes to make cooler and more beautiful purple sand works in her lifetime, and she hopes to spread and promote our traditional culture through excellent works.
Today, Douyin e-commerce is bringing her closer and closer to her dream.
This is her luck and the luck of our time.
Looking at the camera, the ancient civilization is being revived in the hands of more and more young people.
This is a kind of inheritance, but also a kind of cultural confidence.
-END-
Hello everyone, I'm Wang Er, I don't know astronomy, I don't know geography, and I know a little bit of life in the middle. Pay attention to [Wang Er Er], a middle-aged boy who can't help but roar when he sees injustice on the road.
