The Presentation And Application Of Kingfisher Craft In The Modern Jewelry

Kingfisher craft is one of Chinese traditional gold and silver jewelry manufacturing ways. It is a supplementary type of work and plays a decorative role in beautifying the gold and silver jewelry. Jewelry made with Kingfisher craft always has good gloss, great colors, and its colors will never fade. Kingfisher craft development reached its peak when Emperor Qianlong was in power reign in the Qing dynasty. Its production process is extremely complicated. The first step is to make a flower-shaped bottom tray with gold and silver slices and then weld a slot with gold wire around the floral tray. The next step is to wipe appropriate amount of glue, and then paste the kingfisher feathers on the gold and silver base skillfully to form fine patterns with auspicious symbols. Pearls, emeralds and other gems as well as jades are often inlaid in the patterns to make them elegant and noble. Top feathers used for the kingfisher craft are the turquoise blue and the snowy blue kingfisher feathers. Kingfisher feathers with good luster and bright color and the golden brim can make the jewel a more elegant and splendid look.Tsui or CuiYu stands for the feathers of kingfishers. Kingfisher craft is a perfect combination of the traditional Chinese metal craft and feather craft. The production process is as follows, first, make bases of different patterns with gold or gold-plating metal; then, embed the turquoise feathers on the back of the kingfisher into the base to make various jewelry and other objects.Though it is a traditional craftsmanship of gold and silver jewelry in China, the Kingfisher craft is close to being lost due to its complicated craftsmanship, difficulty in preserving, the rarity of kingfisher and its feathers, and the environmental protection as well as other current requirements. The majority of the current kingfisher craft accessories on the market date back to the Qing Dynasty. And there are few modern kingfisher jewels. Therefore, this paper will elaborate from different perspectives, like the concept, the classification, the craftsmanship, the materials as well as the patterns. In addition, this paper will explore the presentation and application of kingfisher craft in the modern jewelry, and the replacement the complementation among different materials that can be used in the kingfisher craft(such as feathers of other animals, the silk of similar color with kingfisher feather, or leaf vein, which were tested beforeand their pros and cons. )...