golden ear

Chapter 294 Tian Yuan Hall

"The name of the hall is Tianyuantang! The first step is to imitate Longquan celadon!"

Wu Tianyuan has made a decision. Although he has supernatural powers, he still has to follow the steps. It is unrealistic to imitate the five famous kilns.Still starting with celadon, the Japanese like Longquan celadon the most, and it is the first choice for high-end tea utensils, with a huge market.

"Then there is kiln construction, which is also the object of little Japan's pursuit. One is monochromatic glaze, which tests the stability and color development of glaze color. The other is kiln transformation, which has strict requirements on temperature and time, which is just for Lao Tang to practice his hands."

Tang Tianming has been imitating the official kilns of Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly blue and white and five colors, and the level is already very mature, but the blue and white five colors are not liked by the Japanese, and they are mainly exported to Europe, and the sales volume is not very large.

Although celadon looks simple, the simpler it is, the more basic skills will be tested. Wu Tianyuan wants to try Lao Tang's level first. If it doesn't work, he can only go to Longquan to find someone to cooperate with, which is more troublesome.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, people from Japan, Germany, and the United States successively came to Longquan to collect ancient celadon, and then a large number of domestic antique dealers came in droves.As a result, on the one hand, it triggered the trend of excavating ancient kiln sites and robbing ancient tombs in Longquan; on the other hand, folk porcelain artists began to develop imitation ancient celadon.

On the basis of inheritance and imitation, modern Longquan celadon has made new breakthroughs, such as copper-colored glaze, high-temperature black glaze, tiger-spotted glaze, he-colored glaze, tea powder-colored glaze, black gold glaze and azure glaze.However, because there is still no unified brand, after a large number of products are exported to Japan, the price is very low, which is even lower than that of daily-use porcelain.

There are more than 130 celadon enterprises in Longquan, with more than 3000 employees, and some national-level arts and crafts masters have emerged, but the annual output value is only more than 2 million yuan!After a year, it was not even as good as a top Ming and Qing official kiln, which made Wu Tianyuan sigh.

This time he is going to use the best raw materials and technology to rebuild the Tianyuantang celadon brand, and then use the influence of Liu Huasheng's tea ceremony in Japan to directly enter the high-end market.

"The celadon porcelain of Yue Kiln has been auctioned for more than 6000 million yuan at the highest auction. When I succeed in imitating it in Tianyuantang, one piece will cost at least 50 US dollars!"

From the very beginning, Wu Tianyuan wanted to take the highest-end route. The low-end daily-use porcelain and industrial porcelain involved too much. Japanese and Europeans have studied for decades, and the technology is very mature, so he has no competitiveness.

Only art porcelain has a greater development prospect. With the long-lost secret recipe in hand, the ability to find high-quality mineral deposits, and the centuries-old craftsmanship, it will surely reproduce the glory of top porcelain.

According to Wu Tianyuan's thinking, Tang Tianming is Geng's old buddy for decades, and he knows everything, so it's best to let him manage it.After all, the secret recipe in hand is very important, it is a core secret, and the fewer people who know it, the better.

Wu Tianyuan found Lao Tang again, bringing the newly mined kaolin and the secret recipe of Yue kiln celadon that he compiled.

"This is it?" Old Tang looked at the secret recipe in surprise, suddenly became excited, and shouted: "So that's it! It turns out that the ratio of quartz stone and aluminum powder is wrong? Manganese and iron are also added?"

He obsessively compared his secret recipe with Wu Tianyuan's, and it took him a while to calm down and said: "Boss, this secret recipe is too important! It is [-]% the same as my family's recipe, but there are some differences. I need to open the kiln to test immediately!"

"This is the latest kaolin, try it!"

After seeing the top porcelain clay in his hand, Lao Tang finally knew why Wu Tianyuan could achieve such an achievement. Last time, he was a little distrustful, but now he has high-quality raw materials, and a lost secret recipe. With his own craftsmanship, he is absolutely confident to reproduce Longquan. Celadon!

For the next ten days or so, Wu Tianyuan studied celadon porcelain with Old Tang. He conducted dozens of experiments every day. With the support of large funds, the kiln factory was also replaced with the latest equipment, which doubled the efficiency.

Every time he encountered a problem, Wu Tianyuan would secretly take out the genuine Yue kiln that he carried with him and inquire about it, and he could generally find a clear direction, which made old Tang Maosai suddenly enlightened.

"It's done!"

The two were obsessed with looking at the latest imitation of Longquan celadon plum celadon glaze. The glaze color is as green as jade, as thin as paper and as bright as a mirror, and it is as crisp and melodious as a bell when struck. mirror, as thin as paper, and as loud as a chime.”

"Ancestors again, I, Tang Tianming, have finally reproduced Yue Kiln Celadon!"

Old Tang was so excited that he burst into tears. Decades of painstaking efforts finally yielded results. He successfully imitated the top celadon that had been lost for thousands of years!

"I'll show it to Mr. Geng and the others to look at it, and give us your opinion. You can improve the secret recipe and see how to improve the quality again."

Wu Tianyuan instructed: "There is no need to consider the cost, as long as the quality is high! The secret recipe must be kept secret, except for the two of us, no one can spread it to the outside world!"

"Boss, don't worry about this!"

Old Tang naturally knew that the Tang family had passed down many untold secrets for hundreds of years, so he naturally had a way to protect the secret recipes.This is only the first batch of finished products, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. With Wu Tianyuan's financial and technical support, he is sure to let it go.

"Is this antique celadon?" Mr. Geng studied it for a long time with a shocked face, and didn't realize it was an imitation until he saw the bottom of Tianyuantang.

"It's so beautiful, it's exactly the same as the Yue kiln celadon exhibited in the Forbidden City!"

Several porcelain experts in the Forbidden City talked about it. If you don’t look at the bottom, you will definitely not be able to tell that this is antique porcelain, and the imitation is perfect.

Wu Tianyuan was relieved when he heard this result. This is the first step of his huge plan. Once it succeeds, it will be a great encouragement, proving that his dream can be realized.

"Tianyuantang, is this your new hall number?"

Mr. Geng couldn't put it down playing with the celadon, and said excitedly: "I have seen countless pieces of antique porcelain in my life, and this piece of celadon is definitely the most fake work. Not only the glaze color, but also the texture is flawless! If you even imitate the base Come on, I want to drill my eyes!"

"With your words, Old Tang and I will not be in vain!" Wu Tianyuan said with relief, "This is only the first batch. I'm here to ask you to give more suggestions and brainstorm to improve the level again."

Mr. Geng nodded and said, "Let's all talk about it, don't worry about face, this is the first and most important step for a national brand, come on!"

Wu Tianyuan carefully recorded various advantages and disadvantages, and fed back to Old Tang, asking him to improve the formula again and improve the quality.

Wu Tianyuan finally heaved a sigh of relief after seeing off several experts. After more than ten days, he did it by himself and thoroughly understood the entire porcelain firing process, feeling a lot of emotion.Three words, not easy!

Even with the help of the latest equipment, the workers are very hard, especially for high-end porcelain, from the selection of porcelain clay, formula, embryo drawing, glazing, engraving, entering the kiln, and watching the kiln. More than a dozen processes.You have to be careful in every way, and all previous efforts can be wasted if you are not careful.

Various high technologies are now being introduced, but they still cannot replace experience. For example, this batch of celadon porcelain has a total of more than 80 pieces in the kiln, but only 30 pieces are finished in the end, and the best ones are less than ten pieces.

It was only then that Wu Tianyuan truly realized Tang Ying’s hardships in firing the official kiln. According to the notes passed down by the Tang family, once he helped Yongzheng to make lemon yellow monochrome glaze. Tang Ying endured for more than three months and stayed by the kiln all day In the end, only a dozen finished products came out of the ten kilns, and the picky Yongzheng was satisfied.

"Hey, top official kilns are expensive for a reason, and today I really appreciate how hard-won they are!"

(End of this chapter)