Shen Huicai, a farm woman from Gaoyi, creates pyrography landscapes on gourds

Emperor Liu Xiu stands mighty and commanding, each bird and sparrow looks lifelike, Zhong Kui catching ghosts is vividly portrayed, and the pot-bellied Maitreya Buddha smiles endlessly... In the "Shencai" gourd pyrography studio in Huayuan Village, Gaoyi County, Shen Huicai, surrounded by "gourd babies" of all sizes, carefully creates her own gourd pyrography.

A Chance Encounter with Gourd Pyrography

Walking into Shen Huicai's home is like entering a gourd kingdom. Gourds of all sizes, colors and shapes can be seen everywhere. With designs suited to each one's form, she gives these gourds new meanings.

The word for gourd is a homophone for "fortune and prosperity," and because it contains many seeds, it represents the idea of many sons and much blessing. Therefore, the gracefully shaped, simple and elegant gourd has become a symbol of traditional Chinese auspicious culture. According to records, the gourd pyrography craft, also known as pyrography or fire-brush painting, uses the burn marks ironed onto a gourd with a soldering iron to create pictures. It has a long history: it was recorded as early as the Ming Dynasty, and during the Qing Dynasty, Lanzhou's "carved gourds" and "molded gourds" reached a very high artistic level and became tribute items for the imperial court.

Shen Huicai says that although gourd pyrography has such high artistic value, just a few years ago she had never even heard of it. It was only because of a chance opportunity that she formed an indissoluble bond with gourd pyrography.

Shen Huicai, now just over 50 years old, is a farmer woman through and through. She loved drawing since childhood. At ordinary times, looking at pictures in textbooks or little picture books, she would copy them on the ground with a twig; in her spare time she would copy them onto the back of a notebook with a pencil. Although she never received formal art training, Shen Huicai never gave up drawing. After she married, she put this little specialty of hers to use in daily life: "The flowers embroidered on my children's clothes were all drawn by me first and then embroidered. They were just as good as the ones sold at the market."

By chance, when Shen Huicai's husband, Guo Zhike, was delivering furniture to a client, he saw a painted gourd. After returning home, he mentioned this gourd with a design on it while chatting. Shen Huicai's heart stirred, so she tried painting on a gourd. When she later saw gourd pyrography for the first time, Shen Huicai was deeply attracted. Having loved drawing since childhood, she decided to give it a try herself, and from then on began her life of pyrography.

Obsession and First Taste of Success

"Rising to great heights," "The qilin bringing sons," "Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum"... One after another, gourd pyrography works with auspicious meanings are lifelike and endearing. "But their production process is not easy," Shen Huicai says. From planting and selecting the gourds, from polishing the surface to carefully conceiving the design, from lifting the pen to carving the final strokes, every piece embodies her hard work and sweat.

At the beginning, because she could not always control her hand and the soldering iron well, she could not find the feel when burning pictures on gourds, so Shen Huicai tried again and again. If she made a mistake, she wiped it with water and kept drawing; when burning, the key points had to be precise. She can no longer remember how many times she practiced... "During that period I reached a state of obsession. I thought about it while walking, while cooking, and while sleeping," Shen Huicai says. Sometimes when she woke in the middle of the night and suddenly thought of something, she would hurry to get up and draw on the gourd.

"To burn a picture on a gourd, you first draft it with a pencil, then use the soldering iron to outline and shape it," Shen Huicai says. In pyrography, you must master three "degrees": temperature, speed and pressure. "The speed at which the pyrography pen moves across the surface determines its color on the gourd, and the pressure of your hand determines the color of the lines. With a bit more force, the image becomes darker; with a lighter touch, the color becomes paler. When these three degrees coordinate with one another, different visual effects are produced." Shen Huicai explains while demonstrating.

Finally, hard work paid off, and Shen Huicai's first work, "Rising to Great Heights," was born. Shen Huicai's husband asked someone to place this gourd pyrography piece in a handicraft shop in the city, and it quickly sold for more than 1,000 yuan. "At that time I really had no idea how much a gourd painting could sell for. I never even dared to imagine such a price."

Dedication to Passing On a Traditional Craft

The success of her first work made Shen Huicai even more obsessed with gourd pyrography.

In order to learn more, practice more and produce more works, Shen Huicai began growing gourds herself. A gourd trellis was set up in her own courtyard, and she also planted gourds in her brothers' yards. "Neighbors and friends also brought me the gourds they harvested from their homes." Shen Huicai's home is "filled" with "gourd babies."

Selecting materials, planning the layout, conceiving the design and doing the pyrography are the four major steps in Shen Huicai's production of gourd pyrography. "Generally, when selecting materials, I choose relatively well-proportioned gourds, but some gourds have rather unusual shapes, and I also create according to their 'figures.'" Shen Huicai uses an electric soldering iron to make dots and lines on the gourd. From the very beginning of the conception, she must carefully consider how to choose and match materials, what shape to make, what size, and so on, all of which need to be planned in advance. During the burning and painting process, she must be even more careful: not a single character may be wrong, and each character burned must be proofread one by one; as for the pictures, the lines must be smooth, the details prominent and the image expressive. When burning long lines, they must be completed in one stroke.

Now, Shen Huicai's pyrography skills are becoming more and more mature, and she produces more and more gourd works, which are loved by many collectors. One after another ordinary gourd, after being processed and carved by her, becomes a fine handicraft. She says: "These 'gourd babies' are all my treasures. When I am unhappy, looking at these gourds throws all my worries beyond the ninth cloud." As her works increase, Shen Huicai's gourd pyrography pieces also become more and more exquisite. Neighbors and friends often come to her with money to "ask for a painting," but Shen Huicai always sends them off with a smile: "My works being welcomed by everyone makes me especially happy. It shows that people recognize this traditional craft. But how to pass it on better, I feel I still have to keep working hard."