Beijing Fine Workmanship Museum, also known Bai Gong Museum, with collections of the "work of unique skill", "masterpiece handed down" which are the essence of the Chinese nation. "Bai Gong" is from the official book "Kao Gong Ji" in Qi Dynasty during Spring and Autumn Period Warring States.
Beijing Fine Workmanship Museum is located in Longtan Lake Road, Dongcheng District. Opened in 2005, it occupies a construction area of 42,000 square meters, currently has more than 30 characteristics of the workshop and 100 master studios.
Beijing Fine Workmanship Museum is characterized by extraordinary art forms. It shows "Beijing Eight Unique": ivory carving, jade carving, cloisonné, gold wire inlay, palace carpet, Beijing embroidery, silk mosaic, and carved lacquer.
Here are some arts of "Beijing Eight Unique":
Jade carving
Jades become exquisite handicrafts after being carved and processed, called jade carving. In the production process, craftsmen carve jades into exquisite handicrafts with careful design and repeated pondering according to the different natural color and natural shape of different jade material.
Cloisonné
Cloisonné, one of China's famous special porcelain handicrafts, has already existed during the Warring State Period and reached its peak during the reign of Emperor Jingtai (1450-1456) in the Ming Dynasty. Cloisonné’s real name is "Copper Filament Cloisonné Enamel", common named as "Enamel Blue", also known as "Embedded Enamel". It needs workers to weave soft flat copper wires to be like flowers, weld these “flowers” and jig model which is made from copper, and then fill in these “flowers” with colored glaze. It was named as "cloisonné.", or “Jing Tai Lan” in Chinese not only because blue is the main color, but also because it was prevalent in the reign of Emperor Jingtai.
Beijing embroidery
Beijing embroidery, as one of "Beijing Eight Unique ", together with "Su, Xiang, Gu" known as the "four famous embroidery". Beijing embroidery can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty and the "imperial embroidery" was more thriving in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Guangxu years. It is famous at home and abroad. In the Qing Dynasty, due to the influence of the imperial embroidery art continued to expand, people in Beijing followed one after another. In the late period of the Qing Dynasty, there were many “embroidery workshops” in Beijing, which inherited some features and stitches of the “imperial embroidery", which made the design more folklore and closer to life. It was named as “Beijing embroidery”.
Carved lacquer
Carved lacquer is an ancient handicraft of the ancient Han ethnic, began in the Tang Dynasty, developed in Song, Yuan, and boomed in Dynasties of Mingand Qing. Beijing carved lacquer is famous for carving. First, painting on the tires with natural oil paint whose thickness is about 15 to 25mm, then use knife to carve patterns. As the complex process of carving lacquer, only the emperor can enjoy.