Archives for posts with tag: mould

Soup Dumpling Mould

03/26/2013 //
1

Soup Dumpling Mould

W60xL330xD20mm, China

In the book Dream of the Red Chamber (Chapter 35), the young Pao Yu described a soup he had, one with young lotus leaves and lotus flower.  These leaves and flowers are little ornamental dumplings placed inside the soup.  The book went on to describe the moulds for their making.  A set of 4 silver moulds, each just over a foot long and an inch thick.  The moulds are the size of beans, of chrysanthemums, plum blossom, lotus seed, water chestnut.  The Red Chamber is a family of culture and wealth and for the ordinary folks the moulds are made of wood instead of silver.  With the pace of modern living, this delicate soup has now become the 疙瘩汤 … soup with comes from a stock cube and dumpling simply squeeze out of a plastic bag.

Isn’t this sad …

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Categories tools, wood

Turtle Cookie Mould

02/05/2013 //
0

cookie mould

W100xL230xD40mm, China

On your birthday if someone made you a cake in the shape of a turtle, you will probably thought they taking a piss at you.   However, the “red turtle cake” is a special birthday sweet for the Chao Zhou, Fujian, Taiwan area, the sweets are made to be given to friends and family at the celebration of birthdays, for the new born or birthday of the land god.  The red colour is a symbol of happiness and the turtle a symbol of longevity.

If you cannot wait till birthday to try it out, they are also use a celebratory food for Chinese New Year.

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Categories tools, wood

Clay Rooster

02/10/2012 //
0

W40xL80xH80mm, China

Clay toys are a popular folk toy, they are affordable and has a certain naive and child like expression.  Wonder how these clay toy are made?  The clay from 2m under ground are usually used (they are easily available,  higher in plasticity and with less impurity).  The  dug up clay is sun dried then crushed down with a mallet.  The fine clay sieved out into a dish and soaked with water for a several days.  The semi wet clay is lay on a stone slab; after a sprinkle of water, it is pounced with a mallet, this process is repeated several time until the clay is not sticking to the slab, then form a cube with the clay.  Slabs are cut out with a wire and then into coil.  The coils are pressed onto a 2 pieces mould (the mould are dusted with dried clay powder for ease of case removal), the 2 parts of the mould are then joined together and joined together with additional coil from the inside, then the bottom is sealed off.  The mould is released and the clay toy is left to dried before colouring.  The base colour of the Chinese clay toy are normally white, with a few line to pick up the details.

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Categories clay, figurine, toy

Ceramic Guo Mould

10/05/2011 //
2

Fish L200xW100mm, China

These ceramic moulds are for making Guo.  The guo is a Chaozhou dumplings made with a thin rice flour dough with fillings of different types vegetable, nuts or beans that can be savory or sweet.   Guo is made for Chinese New Year, all other festivals, harvests and all events in life (birth, adulthood, marriage, death).  Different guo are made for different events;  the red peach guo for new year, vegetable guo for spring and autumn festivals, rice plant guo for harvest.  The moulds are made of different patterns  for this purpose;  the turtle and the peach for birthday – represents longevity, the fish is synonymous with excess (to have more than enough), bat synonymous with blessing, etc.  These moulds can be of wood or ceramics.

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Categories pottery, tools
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