Kazakh felt and cloth embroidery
Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery are traditional folk handicrafts of Kazakh women. Every Kazakh woman can make flower felts, so the most popular family craft among the Kazakh people is flower felts. The formation of flower felts has gone through an ancient and long historical process. Princess Xijun, who married to the Wusun Kingdom in the Han Dynasty, mentioned "旃" in the lyrics of "Yellow Crane Song" with "旃为墙". "旃" is felt, which shows that the use of felt in felt houses by the Kazakh people has a history of more than 2,000 years. At the same time, according to the unearthed cultural relics and rock paintings, it is also proved that felt has a long history. The embroidery process of flower felts is complicated, "thousands of needles and threads embroider flower felts", and summer every year is the most suitable season for making flower felts. To make a flower felt, you first need to roll the felt. The cut wool is sorted according to different colors and qualities, and then spread on a large piece of leather. Several people sit in a circle and use thin willows and wooden strips to beat it until it is fluffy. Then the fluffy wool is evenly spread on the sedge curtain and sprinkled with water to form a felt shape. Then roll up the curtain and tie it tightly with a wool rope, put on a belt, 12 people in front pull it, and 45 people in the back kick or step on it. After about 23 hours of kicking and stepping, the wool is untied after it forms a felt-like shape, remove the sedge curtain, and then roll up the raw felt in sections. Then 45 people work together to rub and press it with their elbows and hands. After rubbing and pressing a section, roll it up a section until a whole sheet of felt is rolled out to make it a cooked felt. Finally, rinse it with water several times to wash away the dregs and sand, and after drying, it becomes a felt. This kind of felt is the main raw material for making flower felt. After the felt is made, the next step is to sew various patterns and designs on the felt. The felts of various colors and patterns on the felt are dyed with local dyes in advance, and then the Kazakh women sew the patterns and designs on the felt with needle and thread, which not only pours and condenses their efforts, but also shows their wisdom. The patterns of Kazakh felt embroidery are generally compared to animal horns, cloud patterns, and diamond patterns (called "Baoershak" in Kazakh, because fried Baoershak is mostly diamond-shaped, so the diamond code is "Baoershak"). The flower patterns include plum blossoms, four-petal flower head patterns, or six-petal, eight-petal, ten-petal flower head patterns (flower head patterns are more used when embroidering tapestries). The artistic characteristics of the felt are mainly reflected in the compact composition, the use of simple geometric symmetrical figures as the central main pattern, and the symmetrical sheep horn deformation patterns around it, which appear to be bold and unrestrained without losing the soft taste. In addition, the colors are bright and bold, with visual impact. 78 colors appear on a single felt carpet at the same time: black patterns with red edges on a white felt base, white patterns with green edges on a red background, yellow patterns with red edges on a green background, and red flowers with light green edges on a snow-blue background. Among them, white, black, red, and green have a strong contrast, while red, yellow, and light green are softer, which not only does not give people a sense of color chaos, but makes the entire felt carpet bright and beautiful. Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery are both beautiful and practical, and are very representative among the Kazakh people. In 2008, Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery were selected into the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection projects in my country. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)