Material, Form and Craft of Chinese Fan-rib

by Li Jian – 2011-11-11 00:17:04 - Total Views : 2705

Bamboo is the most common material for making ribs, particularly for the fan-ribs with painting ande calligraphy. They are normally grinded with waters with the surface, or painted lacquer. Black and red are most common colors. Some hard woods could be used for making ribs as well, like Wumu, Zitan, Huali, Jichi, but the pliability is not good as bamboo. Wood, after grinded, can appear the nature color and veins, and it is always regarded as trea-sure for the collectors. Fan-rib made of lvory is rarely seeing curio.
??Fan-rib is strip-shaped. The shape of large rib can be wide at the top and thin at the bottom, which is changeless, and based on which, various forms in shapes of straight rib, mantis leg, zither, bamboo joint and so on are created by skillful craftsman. The rib end of a fan is classed depending on its different shapes, like grasshopper’s eye, fish’s tail, monk’s head etc.
??Main techniques for making fan-ribs are inlaying, painting, ironing, carving, hollowed engraving, lacquer, gilding etc.