## Part Two, Complete ### Lesson 10, January 9, 1982 ## Lines, Line Tools, Compound Tops, and Small Paddles: Lines refer to the various lines in Yixing pottery craftsmanship. They are a form of decoration on the vessel's form, serving to enrich the shape and produce artistic effects. The application of lines must be reasonable and not excessive. If a Yixing form has no lines, it will appear monotonous and lacking in variation. In daily life, we constantly discover that the household utensils and vessels around us cannot do without lines—there are flange lines, rim lines, cloud-shoulder lines, edge lines of all varieties. For example, in the "Beigua Tiliang" (Northern Melon Lifting Beam teapot), if the body cylinder had no line to decorate and regulate it, the body would appear monotonous, but adding this line enhances the vessel's sense of rhythm and enriches the variation in form. Conversely, as in the "Hanping Hu" (Han Flat teapot), if a cloud-shoulder line is raised at the foot, while the lid is instead a bright lid, such a line neither falls within the visual range to serve a decorative function, nor does it have rhythmic sense—such an effect is not good. When creating lines, we must pay attention to the proportion of the line in relation to the whole; it must be just right and not appear piled up or cumbersome. Carpenters create lines using a molding plane, while our lines are scraped out using line tools. Because lines differ, the specifications and requirements for line tools also differ. Below I will discuss some specific methods and requirements for grinding line tools. Before grinding a line tool, one must first select good materials. Material selection must be reasonable. Generally, a line tool for grinding a thick single line is 7 millimeters thick, 15 millimeters wide, and 100 millimeters long. The length, width, and thickness must both suit production requirements and feel comfortable in the hand. When grinding a line tool, one must first file the line, ensuring that the depth of the line is consistent from front to back, then finish the bottom contact surface of the line tool, checking whether the bottom of the line tool and the turntable correspond properly and make solid contact. The grinding method for flange line tools: As in the "Shegiu" (Capturing the Ball teapot), the line tool requires a width of 20 millimeters and thickness of 7 millimeters. First file the line, then file the arc of the lid top, and finally adjust the concave groove of the flange line and adjust the arc.