Golden Fishing Village

Ao Muyang raised his hand, signaling the porcelain mender to start work.

After getting permission, the porcelain mender took out a small stool and sat down and said: "Then I will start to find faults."

"Find faults? Find faults with whom?" Ao Muyang asked curiously.

The master smiled and said: "Find faults, find faults on the bowl, not find faults with anyone."

Ao Muyang nodded suddenly. He squatted aside and watched the master pick up the broken bowl and gesture with interest, and asked: "Master, what is your surname? What's your name?"

"No need to be noble, my surname is Sun, just call me Old Man Sun."

Ao Muyang asked again: "That's too rude, Master Sun, I heard you used to be in Beijing? Then you shouldn't be doing odd jobs in the streets of Beijing, right?"

Old Man Sun smiled and said: "Yes, you can see that I used to be in Beijing. I worked for the National Museum and the Archaeological Institutes of several universities, Help them restore some broken porcelain and pottery. "

Hearing this, Ao Muyang stood in awe: "Great."

Old man Sun smiled and said nothing more. He put the broken bowl and fragments together and marked the positioning points. After working for a while, he said to himself: "The gap is not small, I have to make six lines."

The six lines he said were six rivets. After putting down the broken bowl and porcelain pieces, he opened a small tool box he carried with him. Inside was a set of small wooden tubes like brushes, but the front end of the wooden tubes was not a pen head, but an iron nail-like thing with different diameters.

Ao Muyang asked, "Is this a diamond drill?"

Old man Sun said, "That's right. If you don't have a diamond drill, don't take on porcelain work. This is what I mean."

Ao Muyang counted them, but he couldn't count them all. He was surprised and said, "So many calibers? You have more than a painter's brushes."

Old man Sun started to drill holes. He chose a suitable diamond drill and started drilling on the porcelain bowl. While working, he casually said, "Generally, I don't need so many. I designed it myself. In the past, the working environment was complicated, and the maintenance targets were complicated, so I used more diamond drills."

In Ao Muyang's impression, mending porcelain is to make a hole in the porcelain bowl and the porcelain piece, and then connect them with rivets.

But what Old Man Sun showed him was another way of doing it. He didn't make a hole, but a small hole that was only concave. The work was very delicate. In order to drill this small hole, he changed a total of three diamond drills of different calibers.

After drilling the holes, it was time to rivet. Seeing that Ao Muyang was interested in this craft, Old Man Sun explained it to him: "This rivet best reflects the level of the craftsman. The toughness of the rivet and the level of making the rivet determine the service life of the ceramic parts after rivet repair..."

Because this is the most common sea bowl, the old man was prepared and opened a small wooden box and grabbed a rivet from it.

Ao Muyang wanted to see the small wooden box, but Old Man Sun shook his head and said, "That won't do. Haha, I'll be honest. This box is a treasure box. It contains not only copper nails, but also gold nails, silver nails and flower nails. They are quite valuable."

Ao Muyang asked, "Gold nails? Pure gold?"

Old Man Sun smiled and said, "Why, are you interested?"

Ao Muyang waved his hand and said, "You don't need to doubt me. To be honest, I have played with real gold ingots before. If you came to our village by sea, you should have seen a large fishing boat docked at the pier outside. That was what I exchanged for the gold ingots. "

Old man Sun stood in awe of him: "Ah, I used to think I was a big shot in bragging, but now that I meet you, I am really ashamed of myself!"

Ao Muyang laughed dumbly: "I haven't even used my full strength yet, how can I brag about anything?"

Old man Sun embedded the rivets on the outside of the porcelain bowl, and asked: "Brother, are you interested in this porcelain mending job? I tell you, don't think that this job is just a peddler walking around the village, shouting "bringing job" while walking..."

"You have to hold a rattle in your hand." Ao Muyang added.

Old man Sun laughed and said, "Haha, yes, this is an old-fashioned impression passed down from the past. In fact, it is not like that. If you are willing to learn porcelain mending, I will introduce you to a way to work at the Archaeological Research Institute, eat government food, be a government servant, and get a pension when you retire like me. How about it?"

Ao Muyang asked, "Are you here to recruit apprentices?"

Old man Sun said enthusiastically, "You know what, I really want to recruit a few apprentices. This old craft is now in decline. If I don't think of a way, this craft may be passed on. I can't go down." After hearing this, Ao Muyang's heart moved, and he said: "I am the village chief of this village. I am busy leading the villagers to develop the cause of socialist new countryside, and I have no time to develop sideline businesses. But if you want to take a good apprentice, then I can introduce you to a good guy, absolutely clever and skillful." He was talking about Ao Jinfu. The child has outstanding talent in these crafts. Years ago, he became an apprentice to learn shell carving. In just half a year, he has learned all the techniques of shell carving, and now he is learning the handmade techniques of mother-of-pearl. Old man Sun was eager to find a satisfied apprentice to learn craftsmanship from him. Ao Muyang's words made him very happy. He asked: "Really? If you can help me find an apprentice, I won't charge you for today."

Ao Muyang smiled and said: "You should still accept this money, mainly because it's not much."

The old man said proudly: "It's really not much money. If you help me find a suitable apprentice, I will use gold nails to rivet the remaining dishes for you. You know that gold is highly ductile and is most suitable for making rivets."

Ao Muyang was shocked: "Are you spending a fortune? Using gold nails to mend bowls and plates? To be honest, I really can't afford it."

Old man Sun explained: "This gold nail is not pure gold. The cost of one gold nail is only one hundred or eighty yuan. It is generally used to repair antique ceramics-of course, these are not important. What is important is that you can really find me an apprentice?"

In the craft of mending porcelain, he can be regarded as a master. If his skills cannot be passed on, it is inevitable that he will be unwilling.

Ao Muyang promised him that he would introduce Ao Jinfu to him after the bowls and plates were repaired, and the old man immediately went all out.

He quickly made a small hole in the porcelain bowl, mended it with a copper nail, and then mixed the porcelain powder obtained from the previous hole with egg white, and then repaired the gap. After a few minutes of exposure to the sun, the bowl was repaired.

This sea bowl is dark in color, and the crack is not visible after it is closed.

Ao Muyang picked up the bowl and looked at it, saying, "Hey, this is really a workmanship, there is no crack from the inside."

The old man said, "Don't say you can't find it, you can't even find water. Go, pour a bowl of water."

Ao Muyang poured a bowl of well water into it, and it didn't leak a drop!

The old man gulped down the bowl of water and said, "According to the rules, this bowl is done, I will make you another one, and when it's done, take me to find my apprentice."