Editor's Note: This article is produced in collaboration with the Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies as part of a series of ongoing reports exploring the city's abundant resources in intangible cultural heritages.
Enamels—Gold Thread Woven around the Patterns, Rosy Clouds Painted on it.
Enamel, one of the Chinese national intangible cultural heritages, comes from the phonetic translation of a foreign craft’s name and is also called Tangci. Nowadays, the handcraft of making enamels has still prevailed in Yubei, Chongqing—the enamel is a magnificent and colorful craftwork that is a kind of utensil made of soft flat copper wire on the copper pad which is molded into various patterns, then , filled the patterns with enamel colored glaze and welded.
Originating in Europe, the art of enamel was brought to China through the Silk Road during the Yuan dynasty and later contributed to the emergence of the unique Chinese craft form of cloisonne.
Cloisonne, also named “copper padding thread weaving enamel,” is a special craftwork, whose basic ingredients include quartz, feldspar, colored glaze, and glass. Ancient Chinese considered the substances attached to the surfaces of potteries or porcelain bodies as “glaze,” to the architectural tiles as “colored glaze,” and to the metal surfaces as “enamel.” Copper padding and thread weaving enamel is commonly known as cloisonne which was first found in the files of the Workshops during the Qing dynasty and it was made of the copper pad and copper wire.
It’s universally acknowledged that cast iron is the best material for making cookware—fast to heat, easy to keep warm, non-toxic, and non-hazardous. The cast iron base is coated with enamels which is a kind of inorganic glass with such properties as being safe, non-toxic, resistant to high temperature and abrasion, insulting, and with high hardness, gorgeous appearance, and erosion-resistant. In the 1860s, the enameled cast iron was all the rage in Europe for its excellent properties and fantastic appearance, and became “the National Treasure of France”. Till today, enamel pot has already been the necessary cookware for many royal feasts and Michelin chefs. Recently an enameled iron axe came into public sights officially and was first released in Chongqing, the mountain city, and it enjoyed great popularity and became an immediate hit among Chongqing girls.
As a type of over-glaze color, the color enamel was a new technique begun in the Kangxi period. It was also called “foreign glaze” because the material used to paint on porcelain bodies of the color enamel was imported from the West. After being fired, the enamel showed a cohesive atmosphere with bumping patterns, vibrant and bright colors, and fine strokes. Being uneasy to access the color materials and to fire, enamels were mostly made into small gadgets like bowls, plates, bottles, and cups only for royal use. Generally, a color enamel was finished after the original porcelain body was fired in Jingdezhen, then transported to Beijing, painted with colors under the supervision of the Workshops, poems written and signatures marked on it by the court writers, and finally fired at about 600 degrees in the carbon furnace.
Among various kinds of enamels, what is more special is the painted enamel, which differs from other enamels. The distinction lies in the addition of the painting techniques to the making process, which is similar to drawing.
In recent years, the hollow enamels, enamels accessible to light, and enamels with transparent bases or without bases have been prevalent in China. Looking at the enamels makes you feel like looking at the stained glass in a church.
Thread-weaving enamel costs the most among all the crafts for its copper padding. The reason is that copper was historically used for making money, which means that the amount of copper used is equal to the money spent. Except for the costs of its complicated making process, the raw materials alone cost high. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, due to the country's economic recession, the craftsmanship and patterns of thread-weaving enamel gradually declined, so that it could no longer match the heyday.
After the Opium War, thread-weaving enamel was no longer exclusive to royalty and ordinary people gradually had access to them. There was a time when the copper padding thread weaving enamel with distinctive ethnic styles won the favor of the westerners, which helped the enamel craft recover and develop in a way. Nowadays, the common craftwork of enamels can be divided into thread-weaving enamels, painting enamels, transparent enamels and so on.
During the historical combination with ancient Chinese crafts, enamel crafts witnessed the significant dynasties in Chinese history, consumed all the efforts of numerous craftsmen and painters, and is the well-deserved “top stream” among all the ancient Chinese crafts. Its irreplaceable luster and temperament will be more colorful as the ages go by. The historical moments and memories are molded in the patterns and the enamels.
Chinese script: Yang Zheng
Tutored by: Xie Jiaoyang
Translation: Feng Lei
Tutored by: Cao Li, Wei Jinjun
Voice-over: Wang Xin
Tutored by: Ren Yi