Ink Sticks More Precious Than Gold | Artisans E3

It's not ash, its soot

How much do these cost? I saw they are like 650-ish yuan on Taobao, while Japanese ones are like 2000+ US dollars. That's like 4% of the price.
I can't believe they use the same materials and process, and the price difference is so stark.

Matar los osos para extraerles la bilis, o inmovilizarlos para hacerles un hueco y extraerles en vivo la bilis todo el tiempo? Hemos rebasado los limites de crueldad von los pobres animales.
Un gran artista con un simple carboncillo se expresa perfectamente y no necesita esta maldita tinta china costosa.
Se puede reemplazar perfectamente con negro de humo producto de la combustion de cualquier
aceite usado organico o derivados del petróleo.
Tambien se reemplaza con oxidos de hierro calcinados dando el "Black Mars" o Negro de Marte
Soy Pintor y utilizo este ultimo pigmento triturado y mezclado con goma arabiga, superbarato
y funciona de maravilla como acuarela negra.

" No es la flecha,,,es el Indio"

STUPID AND TIME WASTING. Not produce anything good for humans or for our survival. Not for development either.

Stll poor. Why not produce something that is needed?

This looks very cool, and I was looking forward to getting an ink stick and trying it, until they mentioned bear bile as an ingredient.

Music is too loud.

look hazardous as fook

Ok I watched it almost all the way until you started painting shit all over the place American style. If your product was the one. It would need no branding.

I will purchase anything from Japan. I've realized that no matter what, they make a good product. Cancer aside.

Very cool 😎

🙃

This looks so cool, but my lungs could not😩

Waiting for the day you offer some of these beautifully crafted items to the rest of the world... where your website offering these so those of us who can't travel to China can give support your company and the artist... you have so many amazing artists that you introduce to us, some needs funds yet you don't even offer a link to them so we can support their work...

I have one of their ink sticks

Wow, I wish I had a stick of this to save forever.

Not "Ash" but "Soot"

This is a great video about the process. Thanks for making it!

I think it's soot not ash

They could actually drastically decrease drying time of said ink sticks if they’re stored in a climate controlled room. It might be a bit cost prohibitive but it would allow them to rapidly ramp up production as they wouldn't have to wait for the 1 year drying time. Though it might not be a good idea if their procurement of raw materials, namely soot, isn't able to keep up with demands from production. Another thing that they might want to do is have high quality CNC machined molds. With a quality design, you would be able to procure high quality and detailed metal molds, which would allow you to create more complicated or stylized molds that can be sold more a higher profit. It might sound silly but people judge products based on looks first; so if your ink stick is the most detailed or stylized stick, users might be incentivized to buy it based on the fact that its a high quality looking product from a quality brand. Another is that the detailed ink stone might capture the interest of consumers that might be interested in looking to buy it as a decorative or collectable(chinese history collection?) gift for someone.

beautiful, but the use of bear bile is troubling. I have a hard time believing that it's effect on the end product is worth the cost of suffering and conservation, if it can't be omitted, perhaps a suitable substitute can be found?

I want to buy this. Where are the original products of this family?

Not "ash" but "soot"

My question is have they ever considered incorporating perishable squid ink?

Sorry to correct you, but it is not exactly ash. It is soot.

i thought of a video idea. can you guys do a video tutorial of how to open Asian ingredients properly? an example is kwong hung seng sauce. do you cut that little blue cap or used a tool to open the whole cap? LOL

what amazing craftsmanship!

More like soot. Or maybe soot is a variant of ash...

wont the decorations in gold and red affect the black ink when you grind in those parts?

Guess how much one piece costs?

It's a cool process. It looks like it hasn't changed much in 1000s of years. The guy collecting lamp black has a rough job. He has lungs that look like ink

Now, I'm convinced of the power of America. He wears a Nike knitted cap, not Li-Ning. Chinese people should make effort to promote everything home-grown.

This is literally so satisfying, I almost want to eat them.

Absolutely amazing! After seeing Liziqi use her ink stone, ink stick and brush in calligraphy on paper she made, I could see the artistic skill used in every piece that was used. Especially after watching your video on the ink stones and the excellent workmanship that goes into making those, this video compliments that one perfectly in the materials, work and artistic detail that goes into making quality ink sticks. Hopefully you will continue with the Four Treasures of the Study in the making of the brushes and paper! Thank you so much! 😃👋👋