Upon completing the head, Cui makes the bones, muscles and skin. Iron wire is used to make the prayer bones; iron wire covered with antiseptic cotton is used to make muscles; and gauze is used to shape the female body. Similar procedures are employed to make the hands, which require the most skill. It usually takes two to three days to complete a very thin finger. After all figurine parts are complete, they are joined together to form a rudiment. Then, silk is used to make clothes for the figurine. To obtain the best results, Cui insists on personally selecting the cloth for each silk figurine.
There are dozens of procedures involved in making a silk figurine. Even the procedure of making accessories also calls on a lot of patience and skill. The accessories should be appropriate and correspond to the size of each figurine. What's more, the decorations and arrangement of accessories also
demand much expertise. On the one hand, the artist should possess an artistic perception of how to process the accessories; on the other, she or he has to study the historical background of each figure being molded.
Carefully observing Cui's works, one will find that each figurine bears some similarity to the artist in terms of facial features and expressions, which may well be the indissoluble bond forged between the artist and silk figurines. It usually takes Cui one to two months to make a single silk figurine, every detail conveying Cui's love for Beijing silk figurines.
Email to Friends
Print
Save