Chapter 119 - Chapter 119: Chapter 117 Last Week’s Antique (2/2)
The ‘Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl’ belonged to overglaze painting.
Therefore, Lin Chuan took out the prepared Douli bowl blank and the colorful pigments and started to draw patterns on both the inside and outside walls of the bowl.
The ‘Antique Crafting Technique’ had endowed Lin Chuan with the necessary skills, so painting patterns was not difficult for him.
Soon, he had finished painting.
The next step was the second firing.
Lin Chuan skillfully placed the glazed Douli bowl into the kiln for the second firing.
This process is called glaze firing.
The temperature and duration of the glaze firing must be strictly controlled to ensure the glaze fully melts and fuses tightly with the Douli bowl blank.
At the same time, glaze firing can also enhance the vibrancy and durability of the painted colors.
After the firing, when it had cooled down,
Lin Chuan and the NPC girl Qing were able to see a Douli bowl with skillful and refined painting, brightly colored with a fish and algae pattern.
The exterior wall of the Douli bowl featured four fish in blue, green, black, and red.
On the interior wall were patterns of colorful flowers, birds, and butterflies; with lush branches, clusters of blossoms, fluttering butterflies, and birds leaping onto branches, it constituted a vivid tableau of a floral and avian scene.
After polishing, the third step followed.
Aging the piece.
There are many methods for aging.
Such as pressing, polishing, capping, hand sanding, water grinding, oil grinding, acid soaking, mixed soaking, oxidizing, smudging with oil stains, burying in earth.
There are also methods like boiling in tea, smoking with incense, and applying fine charcoal ash.
Of course.
Nowadays, many low-grade imitations, in order to cut costs, generally use potassium permanganate applied on the glaze to create an aged effect.
Relatively higher-quality imitations will use a traditional medicine soak to create the effect of old porcelain.
However, not many people can master these aging techniques proficiently.
Lin Chuan was using this method to replicate the ‘Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl’.
Before that,
he gently chipped the rim of the bowl, creating a ‘chicken claw pattern’.
After that, Lin Chuan placed the Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl into a well-mixed medicinal solution, added a small amount of alcohol, and dropped in a tiny bit of potassium permanganate.
He waited quietly for the process to complete.
“Brother Lin, this porcelain already has significant artistic value. Why are you soaking it?” Qing, who still didn’t understand what Lin Chuan was doing, asked curiously.
Lin Chuan smiled, “Having artistic value alone isn’t enough; it also needs to have historical value.”
“Ah, what do you mean?”
“After it’s soaked, it will become a Qing Dynasty porcelain, a piece worth a few hundred thousand.” Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow.
Qing’s eyes bulged, her mouth agape: “That much? That’s way more profitable than making ceramics!”
“Of course,” Lin Chuan laughed.
After the soaking was complete,
Lin Chuan carried out a series of finishing processes and then, with Qing, brought the ‘Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl’ to the most famous treasure appraiser in the county for an evaluation.
As expected,
the treasure appraiser studied this newly fired ‘Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl’ carefully, quite astonished, and immediately offered to purchase the bowl for a high price of 400,000.
But Lin Chuan did not sell the bowl to this appraiser.
This bowl, I’ll have to find a way to sell it to the son of the Ceramic Chamber of Commerce’s president, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing justice to the ‘good intentions’ behind his attempts to trip me up.
…
Afterward, Lin Chuan went on to forge various kinds of antiques.
Calligraphy and paintings, bronze wares, jade, wood antiques… Gliding through with cheats, without ever trying his hand, he made a resounding name for himself in the antiques circle and was hailed as a grandmaster-level master.
Cough, a master forger, that is.
But the philosophical question of ‘real versus fake’ is hard to delve into.
The ultimate realm of antique forgery: As long as no one says it’s fake, then it’s real!
The Virtual World’s Experience Life came to an end.
Lin Chuan’s consciousness returned to reality.
The multiple simulations in the virtual world allowed him to get somewhat used to this kind of mental burden.
The System’s voice rang out—
[Host, you have gained the ability: Antique Crafting Technique.]
[Also, based on your “Antique Maker Career Life” experience, a novel titled “Last Week’s Antique” has been automatically generated with approximately 1.06 million words and is currently being exported for you. It will be completed in about 10 hours. Please check for it.]
[Please pay attention, Host!]
[“Last Week’s Antique” requires reaching 20,000 Popularity Value (Average Subscription) to unlock the next Experience Life career.]
[Keep it up!]
“Twenty thousand average subscriptions… damn it!”
Lin Chuan spat dismissively and went straight back to sleep.
To find even a few books with twenty thousand average subscriptions in Sailing Novel is like looking for a needle in a haystack, is it that easy to achieve?
Sleeping, sleeping, there’s everything in dreams!
The night gradually faded.
The rising sun of the early morning cast its golden rays, enveloping the old alleyways in a hazy golden light, while green-gray bricks were covered with a spotty layer of moss, which glinted with dew under the sunlight.
Outside the rented room’s window, a gentle breeze blew past, bringing a hint of coolness along with the distant fragrance of flowers and plants, occasionally mixed with few cheerful and clear bird chirps.
‘Bang bang bang—’
The iron door of the rental was knocked heavily, breaking the silence of the morning.
Lin Chuan woke up from his sleep to the Little Landlady’s shouting outside the door, “Mr. Director, get up, I have something urgent to discuss with you!”
“What is it?”
Dressed only in his boxers, Lin Chuan opened the iron door to let the Little Landlady into the room.
Having no work today, the Little Landlady wore a loose white T-shirt that hid her denim shorts, creating a ‘missing lower garments’ look that revealed her pale, long legs as she dangled them in front of Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan’s sleepiness was shaken off quite a bit.
The Little Landlady flashed a bright smile, pulled Lin Chuan to sit down, and placed two breakfasts on the table. She blinked at Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan paused, “Didn’t you say you had an urgent matter?”
“Yeah, the urgent matter is to get you up for breakfast,” the Little Landlady laughed.
“Thanks.”
Lin Chuan looked at the breakfast on the table, then back at the Little Landlady, and asked with a smile, “Is that really all?”
The Little Landlady giggled, her face revealing a hint of playfulness, then took out a bracelet and said, “There is something else. This morning, a customer sent a message asking if this Century-Old Red Agate Bracelet is for sale. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I came to ask for your opinion.”
Lin Chuan glanced at the Century-Old Red Agate Bracelet and frowned, “Isn’t that the one Aunt Liu gave you?”