Chapter 93 I Can't (Bonus Chapter: Thank you to all the readers who donated, subscribed, voted, and commented.)
On the lab table, porcelain shards were scattered about.
Lin Sicheng sometimes pieced things together, and sometimes looked at them carefully.
Below the stage, the four men stared at Chen Huaizhi, their eyes filled with suspicion and disbelief.
On-campus recruitment is always transparent. Whether it's a PhD, Master's, or internship position, the specific requirements for applicants and the job responsibilities after starting work will be described in great detail.
For example, Chen Huaizhi applied for the "Comprehensive Research Assistant" position: majoring in metal conservation or archaeology, with minoring in ceramic conservation, and must have certain experimental experience.
In fact, during the interview, Assistant Feng emphasized that ceramic cultural relic preservation was a strict requirement. If one did not possess this skill, no matter how well one studied metal cultural relics or how rich one's experience was, they would not be hired.
So at the time, they couldn't understand why a laboratory that mainly focused on metal research would hire such a research assistant, with a salary and benefits comparable to those of a PhD applying for a core research position.
Now we know: In addition to participating in the laboratory's research projects, Chen Huaizhi also had to do side jobs for Lin Sicheng... side jobs!
Are they really going to take the school's money so blatantly?
And, an undergraduate student, not yet graduated... the lab's deputy general manager, co-leader of the project...
For a moment, their minds were in complete turmoil, and they didn't know how to complain.
The feeling that I had just started to change and that "my mentor is quite reliable" vanished in an instant.
I felt it was even worse than a makeshift troupe...
While still in shock and uncertainty, Chen Huaizhi stood up and walked to the experimental table.
She was very tall and had very beautiful features; even in a white lab coat, her graceful figure was still clearly visible.
Her voice was gentle, and she spoke softly, "Junior Brother Lin, do you need any help?"
Lin Sicheng didn't even look up: "Not for now!"
"oh!"
Chen Huaizhi nodded and then stepped back.
The other four exchanged glances: They've already started filming?
Chen Huaizhi saw this but smiled without saying a word.
She and Li Zhen were roommates in college. It was Li Zhen who suggested she apply for this job.
Therefore, she knew very well whether Lin Sicheng was someone who got in through connections, as the other four thought, or someone who truly had ability.
It became even clearer how much Lin Sicheng meant to Professor Wang…
The atmosphere became somewhat quiet, and the group lost interest in discussion, focusing instead on the lab table.
Lin Sicheng worked methodically and unhurriedly. In a short time, he had categorized and repositioned all the broken porcelain pieces.
One of them is the "Purple-Gold Glazed Fine Sand Gold-Sprinkled Bowl" from the official kiln of the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty: the whole body is brownish-red, and the interior is glazed, so bright that it is like a mirror, as if dyed with purple-gold, hence the name "Purple-Gold Glazed Bowl".
The exterior is unglazed, and before firing, it undergoes a sanding treatment while glaze particles containing iron oxide and ferrous oxide are added. After firing, the surface of the vessel will exhibit unique "sprinkled gold" spots.
Not many were burned, and even fewer have survived. If it weren't for the damage, it would be worth at least a million. So this broken bowl, missing a large piece, cost a full 38,000.
The advantage is that it only needs to fill the missing part, making it relatively easy to repair.
The second item is also quite good: a Ming Jiajing period Dehua kiln lard-white glazed bowl.
As the name suggests: The glaze is thick and delicate, oily but not shiny, warm and jade-like, and has a visible oily feel, like frozen lard.
Moreover, the lard is extremely thin, dense yet translucent, making it an absolute gem among Dehua lard white pork.
Unfortunately, it's even worse: even when pieced together from more than twenty pieces, there are still more than a dozen holes. Roughly calculated, at least one-third is missing.
To complete, repair well, and bring out the true value of a damaged artifact, one must possess extremely high-level craftsmanship.
After roughly cleaning it, Lin Sicheng began to fix the tire: basically, he applied a layer of raw lacquer to the broken edges and then baked it dry.
The steps were relatively simple, so Lin Sicheng was extremely quick, brushing and wiping the surface before placing it in the electric kiln.
The sauce and white porcelain pieces cost over forty pieces, and it only took fifteen minutes to prepare.
The saying goes, "Experts see the details, while laymen just watch the show." Furthermore, for graduate students, there's no distinction between "bronze" and "porcelain" during their undergraduate years; they have to take practical courses in all categories.
Those people in the audience at least knew the process of various repair methods, and even more so, they knew how to solidify the porcelain body.
But even the mentor couldn't match Lin Sicheng's speed. The key issue is his casualness; it's like he's just brushing sauce onto skewers.
The problem is that the light pattern is fast; have you brushed it evenly enough?
Although they thought this way, they knew that Lin Sicheng really knew it, and was much more proficient than they were in college.
But it's not surprising: Professor Lin is so famous, everyone who needs to know knows. Lin Sicheng has been exposed to this from a young age, so he's definitely much better than the average person.
The group of people were self-righteous. Lin Sicheng took out the baked porcelain shards and let them air dry naturally before starting to mix the lacquer.
The raw materials are few, only five: black lacquer, egg white, glutinous rice flour, lacquer, and brick powder.
But the expressions on their faces gradually turned strange: apart from a few types of lacquer, there was only a scraper and a brush on the long table, and no other tools.
There were no drills, no hammers, no rivets, and not even plaster or chemical glue.
What's going on here: lacquer repair?
So-called cultural relic restoration is also divided into stages. Undergraduate courses only teach research restoration, which, to put it bluntly, means that you can just use glue to stick things together and use plaster for any damaged parts.
No need for color or glaze touch-ups; in Lin Sicheng's words, anyone with hands can do it.
Exhibition restoration and commercial restoration are taught at the graduate level. The goal is to restore the original appearance of the artifacts as much as possible, reviving their aesthetic, artistic, and even economic value.
The former is difficult, the latter is even more difficult.
The more difficult exhibition restoration is further divided into metal staples, gilding, gold repair, and lacquer repair, depending on the integrity of the artifact and the degree of difficulty.
The plum vase that Lin Sicheng restored last time used the first two methods. What he is preparing to do now is the last one, which is also the most difficult one: lacquer, also known as lacquer repair.
It wasn't that he intentionally wanted to increase the difficulty, but the shape of the vessel was incomplete, so this method had to be used: first, sculpting with lacquer lines to fill in the gaps, and then adding color and glaze.
What makes it difficult?
First, the artistic appeal of the original piece must not be destroyed, while highlighting the retro feel and the beauty of imperfection in the restored parts.
Secondly, and most importantly: porcelain is porcelain, and lacquer is lacquer, two completely different substances, and the difference in the coefficient of expansion between the porcelain body and the lacquer body is extremely difficult to control.
If the lacquer shrinks, it will leave very obvious gaps at the repair site. If the lacquer expands, the repaired piece will fall apart, and may even crack the original intact porcelain shards.
It takes at least five or six years of experience to barely achieve the ability to prevent cracking and shrinkage. Therefore, although schools offer related courses, few people study them.
Even when they study it, they mostly study theoretical process research rather than practical technical restoration.
That's why these people had such strange expressions: they didn't really believe that Lin Sicheng could even do this.
The problem is, judging from his skillful techniques in fixing the tire and mixing the paint, he has clearly practiced.
The group exchanged glances. Seeing that Lin Sicheng had mixed the paint and was preparing to mold the mold, Feng Lin rested her chin on her hand and said, "Chen Huaizhi, go help."
The female master's student paused for a moment, her face stiffening slightly: "Assistant Feng... I don't know how!"
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