Bottle gourd pyrography (葫芦烙画) is an art of burning pictures on the surface of the gourds. The skill known as pyrography dates back more than 2,200 years ago to the Qin Dynasty.
The gourd has long been considered to bring good luck, because in Chinese the word for "gourd" sounds like the words for "blessing and wealth". It was often used to store food, ladle water or hold water when people went out. Its shape made it a perfect tool in the past. In ancient times, many doctors used it to hold medicine and hung it in front of their clinics (诊所).
Skilled artists can turn common gourds into artworks. The first step is to pick a golden gourd. Then the artist draws a creative picture on the gourd. Finally, he usually takes advantage of the natural shape of the gourd, burning the pictures with electric cautery pens. This is the most difficult step. If there is any mistake in this step, all the work will go back to the beginning.
Zheng Xiaoliang from Anhui has been working on the gourd art for more than 40 years. "The gourd pyrography is difficult with a pyrography brush to create a wonderful picture and it requires skills in painting," Zheng said. "If you want to learn this kind of art, you need to ..."
