Blooming flowers, galloping horses and spectacular mountainous landscapes appear to spike your senses when strolling into Jia Hongwei’s leather-based portray facility in Hohhot, North China’s Inside Mongolia autonomous area.
These vivid photographs give off a leathery sheen beneath the sunshine. Noticed at shut quarters, they’re all delicately sculpted out of a single cowhide.
“Leather-based carving artworks function a wealthy number of topics, together with life scenes of varied ethnic teams alongside the Yellow River, vibrant and delightful peony flowers, majestic eagles spreading their wings in flight, and proud, elegant peacocks,” says Jia who was born and raised within the area.
“Something that may be painted on paper can be depicted on leather-based,” he says.
Broadly thought of a microcosm of herdsman tradition, leather-based portray from the autonomous area was named a nationwide intangible cultural heritage in 2021.
The artwork type developed from the Mongolian individuals’s long-term use of leather-based and has a wealthy historical past and tradition.
In the course of the Tune (960-1279) and Liao (916-1125) dynasties, the Mongolian individuals not solely made leather-based clothes, boots and luggage but in addition engraved texts and recorded occasions on the fabric.
This marked the emergence of the earliest leather-based carving work, in response to Yan Lirong, a scholar from the Faculty of Artwork and Design, Inside Mongolia College of Science and Know-how primarily based within the area’s Baotou metropolis.
Within the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the number of leather-based supplies utilized in Mongolian carving expanded to incorporate sheepskin, bearskin and cowhide.
The leather-based was additionally made into protecting clothes for the military and boots for civilians.
By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Mongolian leather-based merchandise integrated extra ornamental components, with methods, equivalent to embroidery, applique, and inlay used to adorn leather-based objects with coral and silver ornaments.
Nevertheless, after the Qing Dynasty, Mongolian leather-based carving started to say no.
A part of the explanation, in response to Jia’s commentary, was fashionable life resulting in much less demand for leather-based merchandise and mass-produced industrial objects elbowing out handbook merchandise.
Nevertheless, his destiny was sealed when he witnessed, as a younger baby, his father, additionally a herdsman, making garments and different objects from leather-based.
He nonetheless remembers his grandfather producing leather-based work. After ending his research at a neighborhood artwork college within the early 2000s, Jia determined to hold ahead the artwork.
He has lengthy observed many every day objects on the grasslands bearing leather-based portray components, equivalent to saddles and boots.
“They have been each stunning and sensible. Nevertheless, they weren’t explicit about materials choice, the workmanship was tough, they usually had an disagreeable odor, resulting in a decline of their reputation,” he says.
Having an artwork background, Jia began to revive and optimise the standard craft and discover methods of integrating it with different types of intangible cultural heritage.
“Leather-based portray primarily includes carving and inlay on hand-tanned leather-based, making it a difficult craft,” Jia explains.
Its varieties embody aid and openwork, the latter that includes patterns or designs being created by chopping, piercing or carving away elements of the fabric to create intricate, lacelike results that enable mild to move by means of.
The cowhide will first be moistened to make it softer and extra versatile.
The method then begins with drawing the design on paper, which is then utilized to the disguise for additional processing.
Skillful carving will ensue, giving rise to vivid shapes popping out of the disguise.
After the carving is full, the leather-based is dyed meticulously earlier than different operations are added, equivalent to assembling equipment and inlaying gem stones and mounting, remodeling all of it into an entire murals.
“The crafting course of is on the core of leather-based portray and a significant take a look at of an artisan’s talent,” Jia says.
On the finish of the day, good leather-based art work needs to be visually dynamic, with clear layers and contrasts, easy traces and wealthy colors, whereas the inlaying and stitching methods ought to improve the mixing of color and aid, he provides.
Yuan Hui contributed to this story.
