Varieites,Carving Practice And Evaluation Of The Seal Stone (mainly The Shoushan Stone)

The Shoushan stone, one of the Chinese traditional "four seals stone", is Chinesetreasure, regarded as "God treasure", the king of stone. Its color is rich, and the quality isdelicate and mild. It is often used as carving seals and for the first choice of the Shoushanstone art. Carving art of Shoushan stone has a long history and profound culturalfoundation. Combined with calligraphy, painting and sculpture, it has practical,appreciative, and collected value. In this article, the features of Shoushan stone varietiesand the characteristics of Shoushan stone carving art are reviewed from two aspects:gemology and practice of carving art. The features and classification of shoushan stonevarieties and its mineralogical characteristics were mainly introduced from the view ofgemology; Over the aspect of Shoushan stone carving art, the Chinese important historicalposition of Shoushan stone was analyzed. According to the subject matter the processingcraft of Shoushan stone were divided into button manufacturing craft, the ancient beastsmanufacturing craft, figural manufacturing craft, creatural manufacturing craft,bird-and-flower manufacturing craft and landscape manufacturing craft, of which sculptingtechniques and main points were respectively described. The author primarily graspscarving techniques through practicing sculpting techniques and consultant to the localfamous artists. I made a large number of works including11seal stones,5jadeite items,4art works of Huanglong jade and3art works of nephrite. On the basis of predecessors theprocess of Shoushan stone sculpting techniques is divided into six steps which respectivelyare conceiving, composition, sculpture, polish, open wire sealing wax c leaning anddecoration. Through learning five carving techniques including circular engraving,anaglyph, button engraving, surface carving, seal cutting etc., the style of each techniques,suitable subjects and processes, and skills etc are also discussed. Good stone carving worksare considered to need flexible application of more than five kinds of sculpting techniques.In addition, the author summarized similarities and differences in carving techniquesbetween Shoushan stone and other materials which involved seal stone, jade, nephrite andHuangLong jade, and highlighted unique characteristics of Shoushan stone carving techniquesIn order to integrate the western elements, the author tried a new design concept andcarving techniques, for example integrating western carving techniques, Chinese andwestern architecture Africa woodcarving into the stone carving works; transforming theplane pattern and the western oil painting into three-dimensional sculpture; combiningtraditional pattern with modern pattern; applying shadow play and the paper-cut into stonecarving; skillfully collocating the precious metal and stone carvings together etc, andobtained primary results which could play a role in internationalization, pluralism, openingof Shoushan stone carving. By analyzing current situation and problems of the Shoushanstone carving, this paper puts provide some views and suggestions for seal stone carving.