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Lacquer art is an ancient art form. In Lishui, there is a young craftsman who is obsessed with lacquer art. Her name is Pei Xue. Pei Xue is from Suqian. Her studio, “Yishan Lacquer Works”, is located in Zhangtangjiao, B&B Village, Honglan Street. This is her small world where she devotes herself to lacquer art creation.
Building dreams at the foot of Wuxiang Mountain
Eight years ago, Pei Xue, who was studying at Wuxi Institute of Technology, was attracted by the lacquer culture that has been passed down for thousands of years in an elective course. Gradually, ordinary courses could no longer satisfy Pei Xue’s yearning for lacquer culture. She began to run around various lacquer art exhibitions, looking for teachers and friends, and studying the “past and present” of “lacquer craftsmanship”, determined to be connected with lacquer art in this life.
In 2020, by chance, Pei Xue followed her husband Huang Chaojiu to Lishui. Huang Chaojiu is an interior designer who has been engaged in homestay design in Lishui for a long time. “When I first came to Lishui, I saw Wuxiang Mountain, which was so beautiful! At that time, I thought it would be great to open a studio here! ” When Pei Xue told her husband about this idea, they hit it off and decided to move their home from Yixing to the foot of Wuxiang Mountain .
Along a quiet alley in the Wuxiang Temple community of Honglan Street, deep inside is Pei Xue’s “Yishan Lacquer Works” studio, which is a few antique houses with a quiet and elegant environment. Walking into the studio, the strong aroma of lacquer hits you. Different from people’s previous understanding of lacquerware, in Pei Xue’s studio, traditional earrings, hairpins, bracelets, chopsticks, small gourds and other daily necessities have been transformed into exquisite lacquerware cultural and creative crafts .
”It takes at least 30 steps to complete a lacquerware, among which painting requires ‘three coats and three grinds’, which takes several months at the shortest and several years at the longest.” Pei Xue said that although the lacquerware production process is very complicated, the joy that ordinary people cannot understand is hidden in the repeated fine polishing.
Pei Xue is best at using eggshell inlay to add a unique charm to her lacquer art works , but this technique is quite difficult and requires great patience and precision . “There are three layers of membranes inside the eggshell, and each layer needs to be carefully removed. And you must use uncooked raw eggshells, soak them in water for two or three days to soften them, before you can successfully remove the membrane.” Pei Xue said that this tedious and delicate step is the key to the unique charm of eggshell inlay in lacquer art.
A leaf, a petal, a teapot… In Pei Xue’s hands, they are all objects that can be created. Today, she is no longer limited to “locking” her works in the studio, but often thinking about how to combine traditional lacquer art with modern people’s daily necessities, so that lacquer art can return to life and let lacquerware enter more people’s homes . “I can now tailor some lacquerware according to the needs of customers and popularize lacquer art culture to more people.”
Deeply cultivating the soil of art
In the embrace of Wuxiang Mountain, Pei Xue found the best state for her creation. In Pei Xue’s view, Lishui is not only a livable place, but also a city full of cultural heritage, which provides rich materials and inspiration for her lacquer art creation.
Lishui has a rich and colorful intangible cultural heritage, covering multiple levels at the national, provincial, municipal and district levels, including many traditional skills and folk activities such as Luoshan Dragon, Cishan Temple Fair, and Lishui Paper Cutting. In recent years, Lishui has actively supported the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, and through financial support and policy guidance, has promoted the integration of intangible cultural heritage with industries such as tourism and education to achieve innovative development. This has brought great confidence and motivation to traditional cultural craftsmen like Pei Xue.
