Baiyangdian Reed Painting (a specialty of Baoding, Hebei)

Basic Introduction to Baiyangdian Reed Painting

Baiyangdian Reed Craft Painting is a long-standing Han ethnic art and craft. Originating in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Its patterns are simple, realistic, and full of wild charm, giving people a feeling of returning to simplicity and nature. It imitates celebrity calligraphy and painting, and under a certain light source, it exhibits a peculiar visual illusion effect, reflecting the profound artistic connotation of the original work. The superb level of craftsmanship and immortal artistic value fully reflect the outstanding talents and artistic creativity of the Han working people. Although reed painting originated from Han Chinese folk culture, it is beautiful and elegant, full of grandeur, especially in line with the international pursuit of environmental protection and nature. It is highly favored by Chinese and foreign literati and celebrities, and many political, artistic, and cultural celebrities use this painting to decorate their homes. Mr. He Feilie, the Dutch Ambassador to China, praised this painting endlessly and praised it as "wonderful and unparalleled", and treasured it

The craft painting materials are selected from the reeds that have sprouted in Baiyangdian in June, and are carefully crafted through more than ten processes such as ironing, polishing, splicing, and bonding. Made into animals, lifelike; Make mountains and waters as if they were in the midst of it; Made into flowers and birds, as if hearing their sounds, it has a strong Han water town cultural atmosphere. Due to its unique materials and century old durability, it is known as a "green artwork"

The production method of Baiyangdian reed paintings

Choosing reeds - When making reed paintings, it is necessary to choose reeds with a height between 2-6 meters and a thickness of about 10 to 15 centimeters. Selecting reeds is a careful task, and it is necessary to choose high-quality reeds that are upright, clean, pure white, and dry. Only then can the processed reeds have a pure white color, flexible texture, and fine fibers

Ironing reeds - Before ironing reeds, take a bucket of clean water and soak the selected reeds in the water for three to five minutes to soften them and prevent them from drying and cracking during ironing. Flattening reeds is to break open the reed stalks and use high temperature to press them into a flat reed sheet. The machine used for ironing reeds is called a reed shaping machine, which is equipped with a blade in the front. When the reed stem is pushed inward, a crack is cut on the upward side, and then the reed is flattened and sent to the electric heating rod pressing mechanism. The reed pieces are ironed at high temperature and turn from curled cylinders into flattened reed pieces. The temperature of the electric heating rod should be kept at 1000 degrees Celsius, and ironing should not exceed this temperature to avoid damaging the tissue structure of the reed fibers and causing scorching

Polishing - Inside the reed stem, there is a layer of reed pulp that needs to be polished clean with fine sandpaper before the reed painting can be pasted smoothly. So far, the preliminary treatment of the reeds has been completed. These finely processed reeds are not only white and firm, but also resilient, emitting a natural fragrance

Process flow:

Drawing - One drawing decomposition - One component production - One assembly and reed painting - One mounting