Upon entering the studio of Wen Qiangang, a master of making carved lacquer ware, visitors are confronted with a strange odour emitting from the bright-red lacquer ware. Wen, 56, is used to the smell, which has been a regular part of his life for 30 years.

He explains that the lacquer he uses is a natural substance derived from lacquer trees native to China. It is different from synthetic coatings made from mixtures of pigments and plasticizers in Western countries.

Mixed with vermilion, it is red and highly durable. He says that it adds beauty to practical objects as he carves a red board coated with hundreds of layers of lacquer.

The pattern he is carving on the board is a rendition of a famous scene along the Qiantang River, which is described in a poem written during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Clouds and tidewaters are carved so delicately that viewers can distinguish each of the tiny threads. Mountains, towers, people, birds, trees and flowers are carved into the foreground, mid-ground and background.

The art of carving lacquer ware has a history spanning 7,000 years. Over time, the art form has developed many distinct styles.

Traditional Beijing-style carved lacquer ware developed during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The primary objects produced during this period included the emperor's thrones, screens, vases and tea tables, according to Wen.

Such lacquer ware symbolized dignity and luxury. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) loved taking part in the designing and carving work and ordered his coffin decorated with carved lacquer.

"A good piece of carved work can be distinguished by the continuity of the cut during the knife's turning point. One must finish the carving procedure in a single stroke, because stopping can destroy the whole pattern's consistency," Liu said.

After graduating from the Sculpture Department of the Beijing Art and Crafts School at age 19, Wen worked as a graver at the Beijing Carved Lacquer Ware Factory in 1961. As one of only five master gravers of lacquer wear in China, he opened his own small workshop after the factory was shut down in the late 1990s.

He said that his understanding of excellent carving started when his teacher a disciple of a Qing Dynasty master showed him a pile of reference materials about carving dragons. The painting, which featured various dragons' striking poses, can be compared with the nine dragons carved on the walls of the Forbidden City.

Carved lacquer ware production consists of five basic steps.

The first step is design. During this stage, the craftsman starts shaping a brass or wooden frame. In ancient times, leather, gold, silver and porcelain were also used as materials. For example, leather was widely used during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), because it was lighter for the Mongolian nomads to carry.

After polishing, the piece is covered with hundreds of layers of lacquer, which will reach a total thickness of five to 18 millimetres. Wen said it takes 15 coats to build one millimetre of varnish and each coat requires an entire day to dry. Coating the 8-millimetre-thick, double-sided screen he is currently working on has so far taken nearly 200 days. This is a tedious procedure, which also has strict temperature requirements.

Once the lacquer has been applied, Wen moves on to the most important step carving. Craftsmen carve classic patterns using a special type of thin knife. They must finish in a fixed amount of time before the lacquer hardens.

In Wen's 10-square-metre workshop, five craftsmen concentrate on carving by the light of table lamps. The large screen masterpiece they are working on is one of a set of five such screens, which are based on five famous poems from the Tang Dynasty. By the time the project is completed, two years will have been invested in the set, which was commissioned by a collector for 2 million yuan (US$253,890), Wen said.

He recalled that the lacquer ware market of the early 1920s was very prosperous, and many craftspeople earned large profit from exports.

"Now, many so-called lacquer ware furnishings are not made of real materials and are poorly carved, which injures the culture of carved lacquer ware," Wen said.

"I want to make some great works, which can show our generation what really good lacquer ware is and demonstrate the importance of keeping this traditional art form alive," Wen said.

Stripping away the veneer

Different from Beijing lacquer ware, which focuses on carving patterns into the pieces, lacquer thread sculpting, which originated in Xiamen, capital of Fujian Province, piles lacquer threads into different patterns on the surface of lacquer ware.

The Beijing-style technique is called "tihong" (), which means "carving," while the Xiamen-style technique is called "duihong" (), which means "piling."

It takes 27 steps to adhere golden lacquer threads to the surfaces of a porcelain body. Shen Jingli, a young craftswoman in this field, said that the hair-like threads are rubbed onto the piece by hand after being dipped in a mixture of lacquer, brick powder and other substances.

She uses special tools to add the threads one by one to shape a dragon on a red porcelain vase and then carve elegant patterns on the dragon's body.

She learned this skill from her ancestor Shen Shao'an, one of the most famous lacquer ware masters during the Qing Dynasty. Shen created new ways to add different colours and apply gold and silver foil to lacquer ware. The methods and skills her ancestor developed have been passed down for nearly 300 years.

Shen devoted many years to developing and promoting the technique, and she has opened a lacquer ware museum named Qibaozhai () in Xiamen and in Beijing.

Her strong will to promote her family's precious skills came from a visit to the Forbidden City where she saw the grandest and most beautiful lacquer ware works she had ever laid eyes on. She was impressed by the carving work on the emperors' thrones and the pillars of the magnificent palaces. She found the trace of the lacquer thread sculpting methods her ancestor developed in the great works there.

Later, she improved her technique by fusing the essential skills of other arts including ceramics and cloisonn enamel.

So far, she has made 103 pieces of lacquer work, a number of which have won awards in national exhibitions. Chinese national leaders also give her lacquer ware works to foreign guests as official gifts.

Her Beijing branch museum is located on Luchang Street, Xuanwu District. 6303-2447.

(China Daily 11/03/2006 page16)