(1) Qingtian stone is produced in qingtian county, Zhejiang Province, with fine texture, moist, not hard and not dry. Easy to carve. Colors are yellow, white, cyan, green, black, gray and so on. Among them, frozen is more precious. That is, the stone is translucent, such as light freezing, fish brain freezing, door sealing and so on. Qingtian stone is not as wonderful as ordinary frozen stone, but it is also a good product in printing materials. It is an ideal material for learning seal cutting.
(2) Shoushan Stone, produced in Fuzhou, Fujian, is one of the traditional "Four Yin Zhangshi" in China, and is known as the "Chinese treasure". Shoushan stone belongs to the rock subclass of colored stone in gemology and color stone science. Its species and stone names are very complicated, with about 100 varieties. Stone is slightly greasy than Qingtian stone, and the knife is not as refreshing as Qingtian stone, but it is delicate and smooth, and it is also a good product in printing materials. Rich in colors, such as yellow, white, red, blue and cyan. Among them, Tian Huang is the most precious, and Tian Huangshi, Furong Stone and Zhejiang Bloodstone are also called "the three treasures of Indian stone". Tian Bai, Niujiaodong, Guamanghong, etc. , is the treasure of the world.
(3) Changhua fossils are produced in Changhua Town, Lin 'an City, Zhejiang Province. The color is mostly storage, black, yellow, white and other variegated colors, with warm texture and carved flowers. But slightly greasy, not as refreshing as Qingtian stone. Among them, bright red is like chicken blood, commonly known as chicken blood stone, which is the most precious. Generally, the background color is dry, and there are many sand nails and stone tendons, making it difficult for stones to enter.
(4) Bahrain stone is produced in Bahrain Right Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, also known as Chifeng stone, which is similar to Shoushan and feldspar fossils. It's still engraved. Some are as red as chicken blood, and some merchants pretend to be chicken blood stones.
(5) Other products produced in Zhejiang are: large turquoise produced in Ningbo. The color is gray-black, with occasional black spots, and the stone is greasy, similar to Shoushan stone. The baby on the roof is a flower stone. The shape and color are like Shoushan stone, which is relatively loose and fragile. It is Pingyang stone in Wenzhou. The shape and color are similar to Qingtian stone, but the texture is not as crisp as Xiaoshan Hongshi Qingtian stone. Generally speaking, the quality is rough and can be used for practice. In addition, as long as it is soft, brittle, hard and greasy, it can be used for training, such as Laishi in Yexian County, Putian Stone in Putian, Chu Shi in Hunan Province, clean coal stone in Shaanxi Province, Fangshan Stone in Hebei Province, and Yin Shi produced in various places.
(6) Gushan Yin Shi
Gushan Yin Shi, a new Yin Shi, was born in South Asia.
Gushan Yin Shi varieties are divided into Gushan 1 and Gushan 2. Because of its hardness and quality suitable for seal cutting, it has been affirmed and sought after by seal cutting colleagues in a short time, and the industry has also paid considerable attention to it.
Here is an ordinary lithograph suitable for teenagers to learn to carve.
Qingtian stone:
Produced in Qingtian, Zhejiang. The most precious thing is the "fengmenqing" frozen stone. Generally speaking, Qingtian Stone is the most easily stabbed by a knife in Yin Shi.
Shoushan stone:
Shoushan, Fujian. The most precious is "Tianhuang", which is yellow and translucent, and has the same price as gold.
Changhua fossil: produced in Changhua, Zhejiang.
The most precious thing is "bloodstone". It is named after the stone erythema as bright as chicken blood. However, the common Chang fossils often contain iron sand nails, which are easy to hurt the blade.
Balinshi:
Bahrain Right Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Bahrain Fu Huangshi is transparent and soft, firm but not brittle, pure yellow and flawless in color, which integrates six elements of essence, cleanliness, moistening, greasy, warm and condensed. Epigraphy is known as "one inch yellow and three inches gold". The bloodstone in Bahrain stone has the reputation of "grassland treasure". This kind of stone is moist, crisp, moderate in hardness and is suitable for carving. It is a wonderful flower in the stone, which makes people have rich reverie and lament the magic of nature. Some people say that Balin stone is a wonderful flower in the printing industry, which combines the respect of "Shoushan Tianhuang", the brilliance of "Changhua Bloodstone" and the elegance of "the sky is closed and the door is green", and its evaluation can be used as a portrayal of Balin stone. Balin stone is fine in texture, moist and soft, and moderate in hardness.
There are also great turquoise in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and stone sources such as vegetable stones and millstones (also called sheep liver stones) in Yexian, Shandong Province, many of which are mined by blasting, so the common stone prints sold often have cracks, and some of them are filled with wax, which requires careful selection.
Seal cutting technology
Zhangshi polishing
Polishing lithographs is a simple process to make rough surfaces fine and smooth in Yin Shi.
The method is as follows:
(1) First, use 0.02 metallographic sandpaper to polish the lithograph polished by No.600 water sandpaper until it is fine and clean, then apply extremely thin polishing paste (commonly known as polished green oil) on the inner layer of a pig sheepskin, and finally wash the fine stone with stone powder, dry it slightly, and quickly rub it on the paste surface until it is bright.
(2) Add a drop of industrial oil to the stone print polished by No.600 water sandpaper, and polish the fine stone repeatedly until it is bright.
The first condition of lithograph polishing is to polish the surface grain, and its fineness determines the brightness of Yin Shi. The buttonless stone should be ground into a flat-topped "six-sided light" form. Except the sealing side, each edge should be lightly wiped with sandpaper until there are no scratches.
Yin Gao's writing method
Before writing Yin Gao, you must polish the fine surface. If the strength is uneven when grinding stone, the printed surface will be inclined and skewed. You must pay attention to changing the direction of Yin Shi. For beginners, the way to write Yin Gao is as follows:
First, reverse writing: First, turn over the transparent paper designed by Yin Gao, copy it with a pencil according to the "reverse draft", and then copy it with a brush. If it is printed, you can reverse the printed spectrum and put a small mirror next to the selected printing extension, that is, copy the stone according to the seal in the mirror. After Yin Gao was stoned to death, he should carefully examine the original with a mirror and make further revisions.
2. Watermarking method: 1 First, put the edge paper (or wool paper, etc.). ) On the printed surface, press the marks with the palm of your hand, and then write or design a Yin Gao with thick ink (beginners can use a pencil first). Second, put the ink-dried Yin Gao on the printing surface. Be careful not to let the paper stone float. 3. Apply clean water to the Yin Gao with a clean brush, and then use clean wool paper to absorb the excess water. 4. Put two or three pieces of selvage paper on the Yin Gao, polish it evenly with your nails, and then remove the printed manuscript. If the printed text is not clear, you can trace it with a pen. The key to mastering the watermarking method is not to remove the residual powder on the printing surface after grinding with fine sandpaper. When writing Yin Gao in thick ink, it is advisable to wait for the ink manuscript to dry before wetting. It is important to be slightly wet and even, and the sculptor can gradually improve the method through continuous practice.
How to copy
Before that moment, we should do an important basic training-copying. The method is to cover the printing extension line with almost transparent but impermeable tracing paper workers, gently press the paper by hand to prevent it from moving, and then dip a small GUI pen in ink (or carbon ink or drawing ink) and copy it according to the original printed lines. Try to copy and approach the smallest details in the strokes of each word, such as the beginning, end and turning point, which can best reflect the spirit of the original seal script. At the same time, we should carefully understand and remember some regular things, which is of great benefit to future creation. Wash your hands with soap and pad your hands with paper before copying, so as to avoid greasy paper and difficulty in inking.
Copy the lines printed in the right column, copy them in white, and hook the edges with thin lines. If you copy with wax paper blank or transparent micro-transparent paper, just press the paper with the same printing size and Yin Shi on the palm of your hand (an impermeable transparent cellophane can be lined between the copy paper and the printing spectrum to protect the printing spectrum), and then you can copy the stone with watermark method after copying, and carve it on the stone with an ink pen. Beginners should choose neat Manchu to start.
Cutting skills (in cooking)
Holding a knife is like holding a pen, which is generally uncertain. All kinds of knives have advantages and disadvantages. It is nothing more than adapting to the habits of sculptors. Seeing the quality of seal cutting works is not observing the operational performance. However, it is helpful to carve a good seal by using the method of holding the knife that suits your habits. Editors like to hold knives, just like pens. The average teenager is easy to accept. It is fixed by thumb, index finger and middle finger, and the ring finger and little finger assist the middle finger at an angle of about 45. It is carved from the bottom right to the front left by the three knuckles, and the direction of feeding the knife remains unchanged, so it can be easily fired outward like boxing. After proficiency, you can also change the angle and direction of the blade, and carry the tool with you to process the details at will. In addition, the method of three-finger outflanking is also accepted by many people.
Seal cutting is a combination of calligraphy and carving art, so the former calls the carving knife an iron pen. My predecessors talked about the art of using saber, and there are many names, which are almost mysterious. In fact, the knife method is nothing more than punching and cutting.
[Punching knife] Push the knife forward with the lines to be engraved at the corner of the knife, and press the ring finger on the edge of the lithograph to control the conveying speed. However, this kind of "punch" is not a hit, but a punch in one section, which can avoid the shortcoming of not being dignified enough, and the punch angle is small, about 30.
[Cutter] The grip angle of the cutter is straighter than that of the punching cutter, about 60. The lines cut by the cutter are shorter, and the longer lines are divided by repeated actions according to different angles. Due to the lack of momentum of pure knives, it is generally appropriate to use punches and punches together, relying on the whole body's virtual strength to transport between fingers through elbows and wrists, rather than relying on big movements of hands and hips. Generally, the cutter is selected when carving the boundary part.
White sculpture
There are single-knife and double-knife conveying. A single knife is a straight knife (on the other hand, if you take a knife in the middle of the knife mark and take away the zigzag cracks in some strokes a little, it won't be too thin)? Not suitable for beginners, so I won't focus on it here.
Cut off the strokes with double knives, that is, cut one side of the seal into four times with assembly line method: ① cut out the lower part of the horizontal strokes in turn, and turn the lithograph 180. (2) Complete the carving of the upper part of the horizontal stroke, and gently rotate the knife angle to repair both ends of the stroke. ③ ④ The vertical lines are also carved twice according to the above method, and finally the edges and some shortcomings are cleaned up. At present, "it is better to make the knife insufficient than redundant", because the shortage can be made up and the surplus cannot be made up.
Zhu Wen engraving
Carving Zhu is the opposite of carving, that is, leaving strokes and margins and carving all the open spaces outside. There is also a double-knife-loss operation method, in which a version is divided into four quarters, and finally the margins are cleaned to remove the residual parts other than strokes and margins. Seal cutting doesn't have to be carved too deep, and the carving knife must be close to the strokes, otherwise it will make people feel that the white text becomes thinner and the Zhu text becomes thicker after carving the cymbals. No matter how Zhu Wen and Bai Wen carve it, they should finish it all at once, that is, they should carve it as thoughtfully as possible and write it in style. According to the specific situation of printing, it is also very important to adjust the cutter conveying speed at any time and change the direction and angle of the blade. Large prints should be heavy and steady, while small prints should be light and smooth. Don't break the strokes if you don't have a good grasp of the weight, or make the whole printing rigid because of repeated scraping. Everything must be studied and practiced hard, so that you can be familiar with it and use it freely.
Colin Gu Yin
To learn China traditional art, copying is the only way, regardless of books, paintings and engravings. Qin and Han seal is a peak in the history of seal cutting, and its achievements can be compared with Tang poetry, Song ci and Yuan qu. At the beginning of ancient seal cutting, the seals printed in Qin and Han dynasties were relatively simple, and all-white was the best. To have a good foundation, you can also choose to have a special mystery or a strange Gu Zhuo all the way down, just like writing regular script first and then leaving the grass. The method is to proofread the stone with a mirror after watermarking, and write it as close as possible to the original seal. After the carving is completed, you can tap the printed surface with your ink-stained fingers, and then check and modify the original in front of the mirror.
Famous figures in Kline
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the famous seal cutting of various schools is another peak of China's brilliant seal cutting heritage. The different characteristics of different factions show different styles between the square inches of seals. According to the principle of "taking the law as the top priority", you can choose a seal close to your own character from Huizhou School, Zhejiang School, the four famous masters in the late Qing Dynasty (,Zhao, Wu Changshuo) and other famous seals such as Zhao Shuru and Zhao. Novices should generally choose a more neat one. If Zhu wants to be present, he should also memorize the characteristics, compare them carefully and apply what he has learned.
Effect check
It is impossible for a novice to carve a good seal at once. Although he is careful when carving, there may be some shortcomings. At this time, it can be used to refer to the pat on the printed surface dipped in thin ink, and then compare the original print with a small mirror to find out the differences and modify it to make the original print cool. You can imitate the sealing effect of the original seal by tapping and grinding. The process of contrast printing is an improved process, and it takes one third of the time to study contrast.
The predecessors said, "Be careful with the ink and play with the knife boldly", and the revision is secondary. If it is creative, it should be more focused on the idea of composition. If the composition is poor, the whole printing will fail, and no matter how hard you try, you can't change it.
When you write "Yin Gao" in the future, you should do the following: If the seal is not satisfied, you would rather wear it off and rewrite it, rather than move the knife casually. If the seal is really bad, you might as well save it for next time. Don't choose seals to practice this time.
Book-seal relationship
Traditionally, seal cutting must be carried out before seal cutting, and there is even a saying that seal cutting is divided into three parts. Seal cutting itself is an art closely combined with calligraphy. It can be said that seal cutting is to write calligraphy on a stone with a carving knife. The fundamental difference between the seal engraver's work and the seal engraved by the master of the seal engraving shop is that the former is "written" and pays attention to rules and seal techniques, while the latter is "painted" and doesn't care about rules and seal techniques. If you don't learn seal cutting and don't pay attention to rules, the carved seal will be very stiff. Therefore, when learning seal cutting, we must carefully choose the seal script tablet to paste and write. After a period of training, we will obviously feel the convenience of seal cutting. Many beginners often get twice the result with half the effort