Wei County Flower Cloth Dyeing and Weaving Techniques

Hebei
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Wei County is located in the southern end of Hebei Province, 51 kilometers southeast of Handan City. Wei County's floral fabric dyeing and weaving techniques include handmade blue printed fabric and handmade colored printed fabric. Wei County's floral fabric dyeing and weaving techniques began in the Song Dynasty, became widely popular in the Ming Dynasty, and flourished from the Qing Dynasty to the 1980s. According to a survey, by 1980, there were more than 60 printing and dyeing workshops in the county, producing and processing blue and colored printed fabrics. Today, the Wei County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center has collected more than 2,600 old floral fabric works with more than 800 patterns, including more than 100 blue printed fabric works from the Ming and Qing Dynasties; more than 10 colored printed fabric works from the Qing Dynasty, including the Peace Peony, Phoenix Peony and Pomegranate and Longevity Peach Pictures, which are well preserved, colorful, perfect in shape, and fresh in pattern, and can be called art treasures. Handmade blue printed fabric technique procedures: 1. Carving the flower plate: that is, sketching the pattern on the plate paper and carving it with a carving knife. Carving is divided into faceting, line carving and dot carving techniques. Faceting mainly uses the technique of broken knife to express large patterns; engraving lines should be engraved smoothly and fluently. For engraving points, homemade tools such as pestles are generally used for pounding. After the flower plate is engraved, it is brushed with tung oil for reinforcement and classified for preservation. 2. Printing resist slurry: Use soybean flour and quicklime in a ratio of 1 to 3 and add water to make a paste. Put the engraved flower plate on the white cloth and you can start scraping slurry printing. Pay attention to even force when scraping slurry. When connecting the plate, put the cloth and the flower plate on the edge so that the plate surface can be evenly connected. 3. Dyeing: Add dye to the hot water pot and stir evenly (before the founding of the People's Republic of China, plant dyes---sophora indigo were used). Then, immerse the cloth printed with resist slurry in the dyeing pot, dye the part without slurry blue, and keep the original white and quiet part printed with slurry. 4. Scrape ash: Scrape off the dyed resist slurry, wash with clean water, and a festive, elegant, simple, luxurious, and rich blue printed cloth with a strong local flavor will come out. In the process of hand-made color printed cloth, the engraved color printing plate is the same as the blue printing plate; the base color should be dyed yellow, pink, light green, light blue and other colors according to the needs; the last step is printing: that is, the engraved four-color flower plate is placed on the color cloth or white cloth in order, and the bristle brush is used to print. When printing, the plate should be accurately registered, the joints should be different, less dipping and more brushing, and the force should be even. After the four-color printing is completed, a bright, festive, and colorful print with a strong folk flavor is completed. Wei County's flower cloth dyeing and weaving skills are a living fossil of ancient flower cloth printing and dyeing. It is an important relic of the excellent traditional handicrafts in Handan, the province, and the country. The excavation, rescue, and protection of Wei County's flower cloth dyeing and weaving skills have unique academic value for studying my country's printing and dyeing history and ethnic customs.

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