Mold turning, shaping, drying, carving, firing... On May 17, I walked into the studio of Zou Yongjie, a clay mold making artist in Raoyang County, Hengshui City, Hebei Province. He was focusing on making clay molds.
The clay mold is a kind of printed artwork fired from red clay. It is round in appearance and the concave parts inside are carved with flowers, birds, fish, insects, portraits, etc. The production process involves sifting the red clay over and over again, adding water, and smashing it. It is thrown down and then put into the clay mold, pressed hard, and fired, which requires a total of 9 steps.
Over the years, Zou Yongjie has produced more than 300 patterns including opera character series, historical story series, zodiac series, etc. In addition, Zou Yongjie also made clay sculptures such as clay dolls and clay figures on the basis of making clay molds. In 2019, Raoyang clay molds were selected into the list of representative projects of Hengshui Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage. (Text/Cui Zhiping Cui Jiadong Photo/Cui Jiadong)
