Beijing China: CLOISONNE FACTORY and PANDA HOUSE

Day 3 in Beijing: Cloisonne Factory and Panda House
(2 of 4 destinations) 


We rode around 30minutes from The Egg to Cloisonne Factory.  
 
CLOISONNE FACTORY
As written in the factory's entrance hall, "Cloisonne, also called enamelware, started in the Yuan dynasty until the JingTai period of the Ming Dynasty.  It is typically called "blue of Jing Tai" as blue was the dominant color used for enamel.  Handicrafts of cloisonne in the old society were used only for the Imperial Palace and royal families and they were the symbol of power and position."

Cloisonne-made Chinese lady

"The craft of cloisonne includes copper craft, porcelain craft, traditional painting, carving, ceramics and metal processing.  So it can be called the integration of Chinese traditional crafts."

The process starts with a copper base.  The design is formed by thin copper wires, yes, copper wires!  Can you believe that?  The copper wire are soldered to the copper base to form the design of the handicraft.

Copper base is "fired", then designed by copper wires soldered to it

Then the handicraft, in this case, a vase, is filled with enamel so the design will be clearer and more pronounced.  Then the object is fired in a crucible to fix the wires and enamel in place.  Afterwards, it is polished.

The spaces are filled with enamel filling

Cloisonne is both a process and a finished product.  There are a lots of cloisonne items on display at the factory, from the small hand stress-balls to statuettes to giant vases.  The dominant color is still the traditional blue but there are also now red (for happiness), green (for long life) and other colors.  The most famous design is still the dragon (representing emperor/husband) and the phoenix (empress/wife).

Stress balls (notice the blue color and the dragon/phoenix designs)

Giant cloisonne vase

PANDA HOUSE
The Beijing Zoo, which houses the Panda House, is around 45 minutes from the Cloisonne factory.

The pandas' natural habitat is in Sichuan Province but they are brought to Beijing for the zoo.  More pandas were airlifted from Sichuan during the Beijing Olympics but they were returned after.  Pandas eat bamboos and sleep when the weather is hot.  It likes the cold climate and thus, plays around when it is cold.

Pssst...

Huggable...