Chapter 69 How can his hands be so steady?
What is porcelain mending?
To put it simply: drill holes in the porcelain, and then use metals such as gold, silver, copper, and iron to make staples to mend the broken pieces.
It sounds simple, but it's really not easy to do.
First of all, it's difficult to drill: the surface is too slippery, the porcelain is too hard, and it's extremely difficult to control the force.
If you apply too much force, you'll drill through the porcelain shard, making it even worse. If you apply too little force, the glaze will crack, and in that case, don't bother repairing it; just compensate the owner.
Secondly, it's difficult to mend: metal nails are used, so they have to be hammered in. Porcelain is inherently brittle, and this is a damaged piece; if the hammer is too heavy, it will break with a "crash."
Therefore, those who dared to mend porcelain in ancient times were all skilled craftsmen; otherwise, the proverb "Don't take on porcelain work if you don't have the skills" would not have been passed down.
And this is just the rough work; after it's finished, it will probably look something like this:
The so-called fine work is what Lin Sicheng was going to do: after fixing it with metal staples, he would use a chiseling technique to chisel gold foil into floral patterns and attach them to the surface of the porcelain, so that they would blend in with the cracks and metal staples, and basically no trace of cracks or repairs could be seen.
Moreover, it is a delicate craft, known in ancient times as "gilding porcelain" or colloquially as mending gold.
Similarly, it's easy to say but hard to do, and even harder to do it well.
The most crucial point is that engraving is a metalworking technique and has absolutely nothing to do with ceramics.
Therefore, Shang Yan's graduate students genuinely didn't know how. That's why she was so shocked when she heard Lin Sicheng wanted gold leaf and a chisel.
Repairing porcelain in the bronze ware lab is indeed a bit unfair, but if it were gold plating, she really wouldn't have anything to say...
Too lazy to argue with Wang Qizhi anymore, she whispered to the graduate student, "Speak less, observe more, and learn more..."
The eleven graduate students nodded in unison and scattered around the desk.
Lin Sicheng, with his hands in his pockets, carefully explained:
"Senior Sister Li, prepare the lacquer: 1. Mix 60% lacquer, 30% glutinous rice flour, and 10% wheat flour until smooth and set aside... 2. Mix 50% lacquer, 20% egg white, and 30% white porcelain powder into a paste and set aside..."
"Drill bit, 1mm diameter, 3mm length... Fixture, 0.8cm length, 1mm diameter..."
"Teaching Assistant Feng: Prepare gold leaf, 0.5mm thick, length and width to be determined... Heat the furnace to 1200..."
His voice was soft, his tone calm, and his expression relaxed, but Lin Sicheng, dressed in a white coat, exuded an invisible sense of authority.
The two nodded silently and went about their respective duties.
Lin Sicheng turned around and began tidying up the pile of porcelain shards.
The glaze is very white, not very shiny, but very smooth, giving it a frosted texture. The mark is a monogram: it's printed with a lotus flower, clearly indicating it's a product of a folk kiln.
Lin Sicheng cleaned and arranged about twenty pieces of clay of various sizes, and in no time, the clay model was covered with ceramic shards.
The shape of the vessel can already be roughly discerned: it should be a white-glazed plum vase from a folk kiln during the mid-Qing Dynasty.
The advantage is that the fragments are mostly intact, with very few gaps. The disadvantage is that the vessel is too large and has too many fragments.
If it were just mending, most of the graduate students present could do it, so they watched with extra care.
After all, the mentor was praising Lin Sicheng to the skies, saying how well he applied blue pigments and how exquisitely he crafted the filigree.
I have no formal training in enamel restoration, and I have very few experience with cloisonné artifacts. My skills are inferior to others, that's for sure.
But when it comes to areas where one excels, the instinctive urge to compare oneself to others arises:
Although Lin Sicheng was taught by Professor Lin himself, we were also carefully trained by Professor Shang, so we're just as good, aren't we?
Looking at the students' appearance, Wang Qizhi subconsciously thought of Ye Anning from the day before yesterday: Haha, I'm afraid many people will be unable to eat tonight?
Nine times out of ten, Professor Shang should also be included...
Just as they were enjoying themselves, someone exclaimed in a low voice, "His speed is incredible!"
Wang Qizhi looked closely and saw that Lin Sicheng had already put the plum vase back together and was marking the positions of the metal staples with a marker.
Roughly speaking, it only took about ten minutes. But judging from Shang Yan's expression, she didn't seem too surprised. She even took the time to glare at the student who was making a big fuss.
It seems that even the fastest speed has its limitations?
While pondering this, Lin Sicheng put down his pen and picked up the electric drill again.
Shang Yan's eyes finally brightened, and a group of graduate students stared at her intently.
With a "whoosh," a crater appeared.
Then came the second, the third... I felt my hand was incredibly steady and fast. With a "whoosh," we separated in an instant, and a small pit, slightly larger than a pinhole, would appear on the porcelain shard.
With a constant buzzing sound, Lin Sicheng put down the electric drill in less than half an hour. Looking at the plum vase again, it was covered with countless tiny pits, at least a hundred.
He picked up the tweezers and the pre-cut metal staples, with Li Zhen following behind, holding a wooden hammer.
With a snap of the tweezers, and then another, a small copper staple was revealed. The two ends of the staple were aligned with the small hole, pressed down, and then the hammer was taken from Li Zhen. With a "thud," the copper staple was driven in.
Then came the second one, the third one… each one was nailed on only once, never twice. Looking closely, each one was nailed on tightly.
As more and more porcelain shards were repaired, Shang Yan's expression gradually became serious.
The dozen or so graduate students looked at each other.
They had just had an argument, so it wasn't a good time to ask. Wang Qizhi was about to ask Hao Jun, but before he could even open his mouth, he paused for a moment.
Hao Jun winked and made a face, pretending to have a toothache.
He leaned closer: "Secretary-General Hao, what's wrong?"
Hao Jun grinned, unsure of what to say.
Rongbaozhai also repairs porcelain, such as porcelain pen holders, pen washers, pen rests, and pen mountains, and also uses the technique of mending porcelain.
But Lin Sicheng's hasty... oh no, I should say casual... wait, that doesn't seem right either?
No one is as efficient as him.
It's one thing to be quick at piecing together and marking, but for someone like Lin Sicheng, who drills over a hundred holes, even the most skilled craftsman would need at least two days.
The reason is simple: to avoid slipping. If you slip it, a deep groove will appear on the surface.
What's the point of fixing it?
But looking at Lin Sicheng, it seems he's holding a pen, not a drill: if he makes a mistake, he can just erase it and make another one.
Then, with a "whoosh," one after another, and another "whoosh" after yet another. Strangely, not only did he not slip, but he also drilled into the pits with incredible precision; wherever he touched, the pit was right there.
Then, when it comes to attaching the metal staples, the craftsman is much more careful than when drilling the holes: because the porcelain body behind the pit is at most only 2 millimeters thick, and in places where the glaze or body is uneven, it may only be 1 millimeter, which means there is only one layer left.
If you apply too much force, it will pierce through. If it's just a hole, that's easy to handle. The problem is that it might cause an expansion reaction. "Snap!" And then it's a flower.
There was no other way but to take it slow and do it carefully: align the nail with the eye, then gently drive it in. If anything was wrong, stop immediately and check and correct it repeatedly.
Therefore, even for an experienced craftsman, it would take four to five days to repair these more than one hundred eye bolts.
Then look at Lin Sicheng, hammering away one nail at a time... In just over ten minutes, he had nailed nearly half of them.
Of course he wasn't wearing any clothes, and he certainly didn't explode with flames, otherwise Lin Sicheng would have stopped long ago.
Hao Jun just couldn't understand it: even if this plum vase was produced by a folk kiln, it was still a top-tier item from the "Xinglin Chuntang" kiln during the Kangxi period. Just this pile of porcelain shards alone cost Lin Sicheng over 60,000 yuan.
How can his hands be so steady?
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