Cloisonne, made in China with pride

Luo (R) communicates with one of her apprentices (L) during work. [Photo/the Beijing Evening News]

The "Made in China" label is seen on clothes and electrical appliances as somehow meaning an acceptable price and barely satisfactory qualify.

But Luo Shuxiang's works are an exception. Wearing presbyopic glasses, 53-year-old Luo and her five apprentices are surrounded by dozens of colored ore powders.

Luo is not an artist. Their work is coloring for cloisonne and she has been working for Beijing Enamel Factory Co., Ltd. for 39 years.

Luo came to the factory at 16. "I spent three years studying coloring skills under the master at the studio," she says.

After passing the company's regulation retirement age she's still there.

Another veteran sitting close by made the same decision to continue working, although he is 56 years old.

Lu Yonggui works with tools like tweezers and forceps. He twists the thin copper wires into different patterns and inlays them on a copper body.

What Luo and Lu do are the two major steps of cloisonne production.They can take up to six months to finish a complicated design.

Lu says a finished cloisonne product requires five processes: firing the copper body; buckling and inlaying copper wires; coloring; polishing; and gold-plating.

The company has about 90 craftspeople now - most of them over 50 years old. They ensure the company's annual output value of 20 million yuan.

"The monotonous work can turn off young people," Luo says. "Plus the monthly top salary of 3,000 yuan is far from attractive for them."

Cloisonne is a type of enamel in a copper body and decorated with copper wire inlay patterns.

Originating in the Yuan Dynasty, it reached its height in the Ming Dynasty.

Office director Wang Jianzhang says the founder of the Mongol Empire in the 13th Century, Genghis Khan, brought back the cloisonne craftsmen from Arabic countries along the Silk Road. Some of the ancient masterpieces are preserved in Beijing's Palace Museum.

Ming cloisonne was heavy with a thick copper body, and mainly featured on the five sacrificial utensils, including pots, vases and charcoal basins, in the palace. In the Qian Long period of Qing Dynasty, the patterns became more diverse, with auspicious birds, landscapes, insects, calligraphy and famous paintings. All the works were produced inside the Forbidden City during this period.

Under Emperor Dao Guang in the Qing Dynasty, enamel workshops serving Catholicism appeared.