The next day.

Zhao Shucheng took Xu Hongdou to the wood carving shop again. Xie Heshun and Xie Xiaoxia saw that they were coming and put down the tools in their hands.

Xie Heshun asked, "Mr. Zhao, are you here today?"

"Master Xie, I'm here to ask for some more wood today. Hongdou also wants a recliner, so please take us to choose."

"Okay, no problem. I don't have much else here, it's just a lot of wood."

Xie Xiaoxia said to Xu Hongdou, "Xu Hongdou, do you also want to make a recliner?"

"Yes, it's nice to have a recliner in the yard for rest."

"When the recliner is ready, I will help you carve patterns on it."

Without waiting for Xu Hongdou to agree, Xie Heshun said with a drooping face: "What are you helping? You can also be ashamed to take advantage of your current skills."

"But he can carve and make recliners by himself, why can't I?"

"If I say you can't do it, you can't. You're so impetuous all day long, how could you make any good things..."

Xie Heshun cursed Xie Xiaoxia in a slander. He was a typical old craftsman. He felt that if he had good craftsmanship, he would not have to worry about not having work or making money.

However, the times will not remain unchanged. Machines are developing faster and faster, and machine engraving is becoming a trend. With the same pattern style, machine engraving may only take a few minutes, while hand-carving takes ten days and half a month, so customers can't wait.

What's more, when people come to buy wood carvings nowadays, most of them are not practical for their practical purposes. Instead, they are used as decorations or small ornaments. How many people care about how much artistic and humanistic value it is?

However, Xie Heshun was conservative, so he could not see the changes in the times clearly. He kept blaming young people for being impatient and impetuous.

In fact, the inheritance of old craftsmen is the same, but in ancient times, people were willing to do vain to their masters when they were apprentices, and they also had to give gifts and respect to them during festivals. That was because the craftsmanship passed on to their apprentices by the master at that time allowed them to have enough food and support their family.

Nowadays, the cost of hand-carving and machine-carving is incomparable. The master's handicrafts are not easy to sell. Moreover, these works that have only been learned for three or two years and cannot be sold at all, so they naturally cannot make money. If it is a big company, they have money and can support many apprentices, and can naturally provide the company with a steady stream of junior talents, so they can allow interns and assistants to survive.

But Xie Heshun’s wood carving shop is just a small shop, and it doesn’t make much money every month. Apprentices just don’t charge for them, but they need to take care of themselves. Naturally, not every family can afford to live.

Even if Xie Heshun became a state-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor, he was not very famous. In fact, there were not many orders, so it was impossible for him to use money to supplement his apprentices' lives. His apprentices could not even have enough food, so how could they calm down and learn wood carvings, and even persist?

Xie Heshun scolded Xie Xiaoxia for a few words, turned to Zhao Shucheng and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to pick the wood, and then use wood carving tools like last time, and then need wax, right?"

"Yes, thank you."

After Xie Heshun and others took Zhao Shucheng to select the wood, they said, "Okay, I'll send this thing to you later."

"Okay, then I'll ask Master Xie. I'll ask you some advice at that time."

After hearing this, Xie Heshun smiled and said, "I can't talk about any advice, everyone can communicate."

Seeing Xie Xiaoxia, who was a little disdainful, he said, "Xiaoxia, come with me to deliver wood!"

Xie Xiaoxia agreed after hearing this, with a smile on her face. However, he was not because the master asked him to help, but was preparing to watch Zhao Shucheng's joke. Yesterday, Zhao Shucheng said that he knew how to carve wood, but he wanted to see what Zhao Shucheng made into.

Zhao Shucheng and Xu Hongdou were walking back. Xu Hongdou said curiously: "This is enough? Why do you use traditional tools? Isn't it faster and better to use electric ones?"

Zhao Shucheng said: "I just don't get used to electric, and hand-carving is the key to relying on my own feel. This traditional tool is more in line with the feel, and it feels like the tool is united with people, and the work will be more spiritual at that time."

"Okay, I can't see any difference anyway. By the way, can this recliner be finished today?"

"It should be fine, maybe it can be used in the afternoon. But if you pay more attention, you don't need to use it. It is best to air dry for more than one day so that the paint will not be damaged. Of course, if it can be kept naturally dry for seven days, it is the best. The wood wax furniture is early in the New Year and forms a slow oxidative polymer film. The longer the time, the better the effect."

Not long after Zhao Shucheng and Xu Hongdou came back, Xie Heshun and Xie Xiaoxia also brought wood to Youfeng Small Courtyard.

They first helped to move the things to the yard, and saw the recliner on the balcony at a glance.

It is not detailed in the distance, but you can see the carved patterns on the recliner just like this, which looks good.

After the two of them walked to the balcony and looked at the recliner and the patterns carved by Zhao Shucheng on it, Xie Heshun was also a little amazed.

Xie Xiaoxia was stunned. He didn't expect that Zhao Shucheng could carve patterns, and it looked like it was done in one go. He originally wanted to ask if Zhao Shucheng bought a recliner online, which was not processed by the wood yesterday. But when he saw one of the wood, he knew that all this was true.

Because when he brought these wood yesterday, he noticed the patterns on the wood and would not be mistaken.

"Mr. Zhao, your skills are even better than many of the masters in our village. You can't run a wood carving shop, right? You didn't come from Beijing, why are you so proficient in this thing?"

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "Actually, I have always been very interested in our carpenter craftsmanship, from traditional mortise structures to wood carvings and micro carvings. So I found an opportunity to learn it, but there were few opportunities to practice. It was only when I came here that I had the opportunity to truly build my own furniture myself."

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "This is your first time getting started? Then you are so amazing. I almost didn't hurt my hand for the first time, but I can't read the last thing at all."

Zhao Shucheng said: "It's not the first time I've got it. I've made some gadgets before, but this is the first time I've got a big one."

Xie Xiaoxia said: "Mr. Zhao, your skills are so good. If you work as a carpenter, you will definitely have a future. You are much better than our wood carving shop."

Zhao Shucheng laughed when he heard this and said, "What are you talking about? Carpenters are much more difficult than wood carving now. Except for the countryside, whoever also asks carpenters to build furniture, they go directly to the furniture city to buy finished products."

"That's not bad. Even if you build furniture in the village, you can make a lot of money, right?"

"You are not right. In many cases, the village furniture doesn't just ask someone to get it, but instead buys finished products directly."

Xie Xiaoxia said: "Anyway, I think at least every household needs furniture, and there is always a business. Unlike our store, when my master spent ten or half a month to make the wood carving, he placed it directly in the store. It may not be sold for several months. If you have finished the recliner, you can use it yourself or sell it. It is better than wood carving that cannot be eaten or drunk or used."

"You are still pragmatic. If you say that, those who take photos, draw, or even burn porcelain basically don't have to do it."

"What's more, do you think the furniture made by carpenters is very profitable? Now everyone is online, so you can go online to see how much it costs to have a wooden chair or furniture. A furniture factory produces furniture and it is likely that a set of furniture can be assembled in a few minutes. We are a master who can make a set of furniture a day, even if we are a master. A chair costs more than ten or twenty yuan, which is not enough for our wood money, or it is not enough to take time. Do you still think that being a carpenter is competitive now?"

Xie Xiaoxia said: "Then our wood carvings are not the same. Now organic carvings can be made in a few minutes, and the patterns may not be worse than our handmade ones, and there will be no mistakes. So why should we learn hand-carving?"

When Zhao Shucheng saw Xie Heshun, he was furious and quickly pulled Xie Heshun and said, "Master Xie, let's sit down and drink tea, and say while drinking. What Xie Xiaoxia said is not wrong, but she is still too impetuous and does not understand thoroughly at all."

"Machine carvings are indeed very impactful to hand-carving now, and because of the cheap and beautiful things, they have become the choice of many people. After all, the development of industrialization is irreversible and will have a great impact on traditional handicrafts. Just like clothes, each household originally bought cloth to make clothes by themselves, but why do everyone buys ready-made clothes later but don't make them by themselves? It is because of the cost-effectiveness."

"But everything is not absolute. The clothes in your factory are indeed good, but because they are produced in assembly lines and are produced by cold machines, everything is standard. And making clothes yourself, because they are tailored, is more in line with everyone's needs. Therefore, hand-made clothes have once again become the choice of many people, and the price is not bad at all compared to ready-made clothes. Even some individually customized clothes are even comparable to luxury goods, and they may not be able to buy them even if you spend money."

"And your wood carvings are the same. Although machine carvings can be produced on a large scale, they do not have the charm of hand-carved because they are all made of the same mold. The works of machine carvings cannot become antiques, because they are the same and numerous. On the contrary, they are hand-carved. If your works are good enough, or even good enough, and have enough artistic value, even if they cannot become a collection that everyone is rushing to own for a while, they will also have great collection value in the future, and naturally they are expensive."
Chapter completed!