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A Conversation with a Craftman--Ou Sculpture

Ou Sculpture is a kind of traditional plastic art in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, and is also one of the national intangible cultural heritage. This week I found a craftswoman who is specialized in making Ou Sculpture. She has been in this profession for more than ten years. I chose Ou Sculpture because I once took the Ou Sculpture course for one semester. I have experienced this craft in person, so I know the charm of this craft.


Ou Sculpture Painting

Mindmap
    There are several different focuses in this mindmap. Like the context of Ou sculpture, the making process of an Ou sculpture work, the main contents of Ou Sculpture work, and the material of Ou Sculpture. In this part, I mainly want to show how the material of Ou Sculpture, oil mud, is made. The material of oil mud is Ou soil, which is local soil. The first step is to blind the Ou soil, plaster, white cement, and water. Then stir them well and let them dry in the sun. After that, add some oil to the wet mud. Finally, use a candle to heat the mud clumps by clumps.
Part I
    This part tells the making process of an Ou Sculpture painting. The first step is to draw a sketch of the pattern that we want to make on a wooden board. Then we have to stick the first layer of oil mud. Because Ou Sculpture painting is a three-dimensional painting, we need to stick and smooth the oil mud layer by layer. The order is from large area to small area, from bottom to top. What's more, flowers and birds painting, landscape painting, and figure painting are three main topics of Ou Sculpture painting.

Part II
    This part mainly shows some information about the Ou Sculpture and the craftswoman that we interviewed. There are three main stages of development of Ou Sculpture. In the beginning, Ou Sculpture was mainly used to document the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan water. Being used to represent traditional culture happened in the second stage of development. In recent years, Ou Sculpture gradually began to document some contemporary themes, like modern architecture, which is thought of as the third stage.

Part III
    It is very meaningful for us to have an in-person experience of studying such a traditional craft. We have learned a lot during the process of both studying and interviewing. At the end of the conversation with the craftswoman, we asked if there was any connection or inspiration between Ou Sculpture and architecture. She said as for now, the most common usage of Ou Sculpture in Architecture is decoration. In my opinion, the relationship between Ou Sculpture and Architecture can be far more than these. Because the oil mud has the features of being waterproof and quite hard when it dries. Therefore, oil mud can be identified as a potential construction material. 


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