In the process of selling sugar, Liu Bowen creatively softened sugar and made all kinds of sugar people, such as chickens and puppies, which were so cute that children rushed to buy them. On the way, many people asked Liu Bowen to teach sugar blowers, and Liu Bowen taught them one by one. As a result, this craft has spread widely, and it is said that it has a history of more than 600 years.
Extended data:
"Blowing sugar" is a traditional folk craft, which is said to have existed in the Song Dynasty and is called "playing sugar". The raw material used by the "sugar blower" is mainly caramel cooked by the artist himself, and the sugar body is brown. The main raw material for cooking maltose is starch. Artists have their own unique recipes and cooking methods, and the whole process is judged by experience, so the accumulated operating experience is very precious.
Folk "Sugar Blower" artists, when heating the caramel to a proper temperature, tear it off, knead it into a ball, press out a deep hole with a small amount of starch with their forefinger, tighten the outer mouth, pull it out quickly, and suddenly break the candy when it reaches a certain fineness. At this time, the candy is like a thin tube, which is immediately blown into shape by mouth.
The whole operation process has to go through hard training, the technique should be accurate, and the modeling should be concise and vivid. The key technology of sugar blower is the skill of blowing and kneading. The sugar maker first holds a small piece of maltose in his palm, then clenches his fist, passes the fingers of the other hand through the palm, piles the sugar into a tube, bites off the top of the tube and can blow it.
Sugar makers puffed up their cheeks and were soon blown into thin-skinned, hollow oblate spheres. Then, with ingenious and changeable techniques, flowers, birds, fish, insects and figures with different shapes were squeezed out, and some of them were painted with colorful colors, which were deeply loved by people.