Chapter 140: Body Shooting

"Oh... but this body-beating tube is a delicate job. I'm old now, so I have to wear a mirror first."

Gong Zhou smiled and took out an eye from another small drawer and put it on his nose in a pretentious manner.

After putting on the glasses, his overall image became more like a contemporary master who had been immersed in the business of purple clay pottery making for decades - but Xu Yichi suspected that the thing he took out was actually a pair of plain glasses without a degree, but she was embarrassed to say it.

——It is very rude to casually expose the white lies of a senior who is hundreds of years old.jpg
"Hey, it's much clearer now." Gong Zhou smiled and picked up a wooden paddle that was the right size and comfortable to use. "Then let's start playing with the body."

"There are two main purposes for this body beater. One is to preliminarily determine the overall shape of our purple clay teapot - to see if you want to make this teapot square or round; the round one is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with the same width at the top and bottom; or if you want to make other more complex shapes, you will need to press the ribs and fill the clay strips later."

"The other thing is to close the top and bottom, and make the mouth of the pot the same size as the mouth of the film we just cut out, so that we can put the film on later."

"The most important thing to pay attention to when beating the body tube is the same as when we were making mud strips before." Gong Zhou said as he beat the mud tube under his command for a while.

Xu Yichi and others could see clearly that in Gong Zhou's hands, the clay tube had taken on the shape of half a round Xishi pot in a short while.

"——That means you must use force evenly." Gong Zhou pursed his lips, and the wooden paddle in his hand continued to hit the mud barrel.

"If you use too much force at the beginning, then the force of the whole circle will have to be that much; if you use too little force at this moment, then you can't hit harder than this later."

"In short, you have to apply force evenly, or at least make sure that the force in the same circle is roughly even - the clay is soft, and it is plastic before it is dried and fired. Uneven force will not only make the surface of the finished pot bumpy, but also make the pot body uneven in thickness."

"When you cook it later, this will easily affect the heat. Bubbles are a small matter, but if you are not careful, it will directly crack and explode."

"Also, when we are shaping the pot, opening the spout, and gluing the handle, it is inevitable that some traces of our work will be left on the pot. Some people don't pay much attention and may accidentally scratch the pot body and lose some flesh."

"——These are missing a little flesh, or are slightly concave, with a finger mark. We can use clay to fill them one by one during the shaping stage. But if you say that this dent was left by accident when making the pot later, or that you used the wrong force when you started to tap the body, and it created a big dent, then we definitely can't fill such a big dent with clay."

"Hey~ We've basically finished shooting this belly like this. Move the camera up and use the same method as before to shoot the bottom."

Gong Zhou swung the wooden paddle in his hand very quickly. Perhaps it was because when he patted the bottom of the pot, he no longer needed to do it as he did when he patted the belly. He had to slow down the speed step by step so that the three inexperienced girls could see clearly. This time, he only took less than half the time of patting the belly of the pot to shape the pot.

"Okay, now we can put it on film." Gong Zhou was very satisfied after taking the picture of the body of the pot, so he put down the chopstick in his hand and picked up the clay chopsticks beside him. "Generally, teapot makers who are not very skilled in making pots will make the mouth and bottom slightly smaller than the upper and lower pieces, so that it is convenient for us to use the minnow knife to cut the upper and lower mouths of the pot to fit the clay pieces, but masters like me who are skilled in craftsmanship basically don't need to do that."

"Here - you see, the size of the bottom edge is the same as that of the film. We can trim the small rough edges, cut out a suitable bonding edge, apply the clay with a clay chopstick, and then we can put on the film."

"When we take the film, we use this special clay pick - you can't just use your hands, it will be deformed if you use your hands directly."

"Here, carefully insert the clay stick under the film like this, and gently pull it up, and the clay piece will come off - this way it won't deform easily."

Gong Zhou patiently and carefully explained every detail that everyone needed to pay attention to when making a pot, and he did the work quickly, steadily and beautifully.

"Look, it fits perfectly!" Gong Zhou showed off his perfect bottom of the pot with a proud look on his face, "——Let's use some small tools to trim the mud inside and outside, turn the pot upside down, and start closing the top and putting on the mouth slices."

"The steps for applying the mouth piece are exactly the same as those for applying the base piece just now. I know that some of you who have never come into contact with purple clay teapots and probably don't watch many related short videos must be curious about why we have to seal the top and bottom of the teapot during the process of making it."

"Hey, that's okay. This seal is mainly used to make the rim at the back that can close with the lid - we'll need to open the lid later."

"Come and have a look. The upper and lower ends of the pot are sealed like this. The mouth, bottom, belly and height of the pot have also been determined. The height of the drum-shaped column we are making now will be the height of our finished pot in the future."

"The next step is to roll and comb the body. This is the step for us to further trim the general outline of the purple clay teapot. The force used in these two steps is more particular than the patting of the body above, because now the upper and lower mouths of our purple clay teapot are sealed. Once rolled out, it cannot be repaired. The movements must be steady."

"The tool used to comb the body is a 'comb', which is made of bamboo pieces with natural curvature. According to specific uses, it is divided into 'shoulder comb', 'belly comb', 'lid comb', etc. It is a great tool for us to shape the pot for the first time."

"Well... it's fixed. Then we'll add another layer of clay to the mouth and bottom of the pot. This is for reinforcement. The method of adding clay is much simpler than the method of adding the bottom piece just now. We can directly apply some clay to the clay sheet, and then stick it to the corresponding position of the mouth and bottom of the pot, and use tools to fix the shape."

Gong Zhou's men who were applying the mud paused for a moment, turned back to look at Xu Yichi and the others, and patiently explained to them: "These will be removed later."

"Okay, now the body of the pot is basically done. Let's put it in a plastic box to keep it moist - otherwise we'll spend too much time making the spout, handle, and lid, and the purple clay will dry out, which would be difficult to handle."

"Now, we should make the spout, lid, and handle!"

Gong Zhou clapped his hands: "These are all details, you guys must look carefully!"

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