Ch'en Hui-yen broke new ground by staining her dough figures with pigments used in traditional Chinese painting. She also added other materials to the dough to enable her figurines to last for 20 or 30 years without deteriorating, instead of the normal three months.
陳慧燕則首創以國畫裡的顏料來染面；更在面裡加些材料，使過去只能維持三個月的面人能保存廿、卅年不壞，造型方面也將原始平面的面人立體化。