Riding the wind of rebirth

"Duck egg white is a transparent mucus. Applying egg white is to use it to fill the tiny pores on the surface of the stone instead of water, forming a smooth and transparent film on the surface of the stone, achieving an effect similar to the stone being wet with water, fully showing the color of the stone surface, enhancing the contrast, making the pattern clear and the color bright. After the egg white dries, this film still exists, and the viewing effect similar to that after being wet with water is still maintained. As long as it is not allowed to get wet, it can last for several years. This basically solves the problem of 'applying water is good but it's ruined once the water dries'."

"Egg white is non-permeable. When you use egg white to smear the patterned stone, the color deep inside the stone cannot show through, and it will not disturb the original 'order' of the picture."

"It is best to use duck egg white. Duck egg white is thicker, so you can add some water to dilute it and stir it thoroughly." The godfather simply took out the duck egg and started working on a stone: "First, soak the stone, wipe off the floating water on the stone surface with a wrung-out wet towel, and then use a soft-bristled brush to dip the egg white and evenly apply it to the stone surface."

"I want to try it." Mai Xiaomiao took the bowl of egg white: "This is good. If one day we don't need this coating anymore, we can just soak it in water and remove it."

"This is the standard way Chinese people maintain artworks. The materials are simple, ecological, effective and restorable."

"It seems that Xiao Miao was deeply influenced by Elbow." Godmother smiled and said, "Have you ever seen Elbow mounting calligraphy and paintings?"

"Yes, every day in the capital, I watched him restore the "Portrait of Lady Shexiang", and I also watched the masters at the National Museum restore porcelain, and they also used duck egg whites."

"That's absolutely right." Godfather smiled and said, "The idea of ​​brushing duck egg white on the painting stone originally came from the traditional porcelain restoration method that Elbow learned from his fourth cousin, duck egg white."

"Okay, the back of this stone has been painted. We need to wait for it to dry before painting the main viewing surface. That will have to be tomorrow morning."

"The pattern on this stone looks like a pine tree. There is also a fruit here, but it is too round. It looks more like an apple. It would be better if it looked like a pine cone..." Mai Xiaomiao expressed regret.

"Xiao Miao, this is not a fruit, this is the moon." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "You can imagine the following patterns as a stream of water."

“Is this the night view in the mountains?”

"There was a great pastoral poet in the Tang Dynasty of China. He had a poem that was very popular. There was a line in it: 'The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring flows over the rocks.'"

"Wow……"

With Mai Xiaomiao's gentle "Wow", everyone felt that the artistic conception of this picture stone was immediately sublimated.

"Then this is how we name this stone." Godfather patted the stone and said, "The composition is good, but it's a little blurry, which is a pity."

"The picture stone is not picky about the material, as long as the picture is interesting enough." Zhou Zhi introduced to Mai Xiaomiao: "But there is a prerequisite, that is, the clearer the picture, the higher the value."

"The stones with the clearest patterns are those with patterns in the form of crystals, such as chrysanthemum stone and peony stone." Godfather said, "Or they are fossil stones, such as ammonite. But this kind of stone rarely appears in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Here we have more Dancai stone, grass flower stone, rain flower stone, Yangtze red, chlorite, hibiscus stone, ink stone, and oil painting stone, which are basically igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks. There is also a kind of Jiang'an stone, which is a metamorphic quartz sandstone. Many of the stones here have the characteristics of different postures, smooth lines, rich colors, varied textures, and realistic composition. Especially Jiang'an stone, the shapes are varied, colorful, and the artistic conception is exquisite."

Next is the time to appreciate the stones. As the current president of the Manzhou Yangtze River Stone Association, godfather was one of the earliest players to start playing with stones. Although there are a lot of messy stones at home, there are still quite a few fine ones.

Most of these fine products are pattern stones, and the most common pattern stones are ink stones. Ink stones are also called blue and white stones. The stones are composed of black, white and gray, showing the effect of ink painting or calligraphy, so they are called ink stones by friends.

There are actually many kinds of materials for ink stone. The rougher the stone, the blurrier the pattern, and the finer the stone, the clearer the pattern.

Among them are several rare stones, which are fine products that have established the status of "Godfather Yangtze River Rocks".

One piece is called "Nuwa Mending the Sky". On the black stone background there is a silhouette of a woman in a long skirt holding something with her hands raised.

There is also a white circle on top of the stone, but it is not particularly round.

At the beginning, my godmother named this stone Chang'e Flying to the Moon, and interpreted the shadow held by the woman's hands as the Jade Rabbit.

Zhou Zhi saw Chang'e who was not in a hurry to stuff the rabbit into the moon. Chang'e flying to the moon should show her reluctance to leave the world below, which is different from the posture of the character in the picture. It would be better to change it to Nuwa mending the sky.

This made it right all of a sudden, and the stone became my godfather’s “family treasure”.

There is another piece that is even more peculiar. It is a piece of red jasper, which is generally appreciated for its quality. However, the shape of this stone is very peculiar, with some grooves on it, giving it a bit of the thin and transparent look of Taihu stone, so you can appreciate both its shape and its quality.

Red jasper is composed of three colors, mixed with white quartz and yellow impurities. Zhou Zhi also liked this stone very much. When he was looking at the stone, he found a yellow shadow in the corner of the stone, like a hunchbacked figure. There was also a white quartz stripe on the yellow edge, which was elegant and natural. Zhou Zhi immediately thought of an allusion - Mi Fu worshiping the stone.

Mi Fu was a man of the Song Dynasty. He was also a stone fanatic. He was impeached and demoted because he neglected his official duties due to his infatuation with art. When he was demoted to the military supervisor of Wuwei Prefecture, he saw a very strange stone in the government office and shouted with joy: "This is worthy of my worship." So he ordered his attendants to change his official clothes and hat for him, and he knelt down to worship with a tablet in his hand, and respectfully called the stone "Stone Master".

The story spread quickly, and people thought his behavior was funny. However, he later heard that there was an ugly stone on the river bank outside the city, so he ordered the yamen runners to move it into the prefecture government office. When he saw it, he was even more surprised. He knelt on the ground again and said to the stone: "I have wanted to see Brother Stone for twenty years!"

After Zhou Zhi discovered the highlight of this stone, the emphasis went from "appreciating both its shape and quality" to "appreciating its quality, shape, and painting." Moreover, the artist on the painting is Mi Fu, the "stone maniac." He can be regarded as the ancestor of everyone.

The current behavior of people picking up stones by the river is similar to the story of Mi Fu worshipping stones. It can be regarded as using celebrities to gild oneself.

In addition to these two top-quality stones, there are many other stones in godfather's house that amaze Mai Xiaomiao. Some have patterns, and some have recognizable words on them. In addition to relatively simple stones with words like "August 1st", "July 7th" and "Tao" in cursive script, the most peculiar ones are four ink stones, each with a word on it, forming a sentence "Articles in the World".

There is also a pair of oval stones of similar size. Each stone is as big as two fists. There are two black marks on the white background, and there is a small black dot in the middle of the two black marks. It looks like a pair of abstract animals.

"Panda!" Mai Xiaomiao said in surprise. (End of this chapter)