When many people talk about silk, they can't help but sigh a sentence of "an inch of silk and an inch of gold", in short, a word "expensive"! So why is silk fabric so expensive?

Until now, silk has only been woven entirely by hand and cannot be replaced by machines. Generally, the weaving method of brocade is the method of "through warp and weft", that is, the weft thread penetrates the entire width of the fabric, and the process of silk is to use raw silk as the warp, and various colored cooked silk threads as the weft, which is dug and woven by the method of warp and weft breaking.

Because of the freedom to change colors, the silk can be woven into quite intricate patterns, and each silk master seems to be painting on a loom, which often takes a lot of time.

Using common techniques such as flat and tie, all the text is woven from silk, and the text of the work is arranged evenly and the font size is consistent, which is not an easy task.

This picture depicts the scene of the Queen Mother of the West celebrating her birthday in the West Tianyao Pond in myths and legends, and is the largest silk work of the Ming Dynasty in existence, using a variety of techniques, and the picture is very exquisite.

The cloud craftsmanship of this purse class has been upgraded in the fabric, and the fabric with silk and gold is selected, which has rich layers and a stronger three-dimensional sense of the finished product. The pouch is decorated with handmade concentric knots and tassels on both sides, which is both beautiful and adds a better meaning.

"Purple-gray silk purse with gold, you know, if you want to buy a silk purse online, it is also worth a lot, and as long as you learn this skill, you can go home and make as much as you want."

Handmade drawstring purses have been popular since the beginning of the class, with neat and straight pleats on both sides, which is visually more prominent than other jobs with a flat surface. In particular, the fan-shaped pleats can make the silk fabric show different luster from different angles, which is particularly attractive.

The seemingly simple purse is made with tedious and delicate steps, and the accordion-style pleats have a unique aesthetic that requires a lot of effort to create neat and straight pleats.

The purse style selected this time basically includes all the processes in the production of purse: making jackets, cutting, sewing, pinching pleats, threading, knotting, making tassels, etc.

In addition to learning how to make silk purses, you will also learn how to make concentric knots and handmade tassels, so that you can draw inferences from each other to make more styles of purses.

There are not many young people who learn silk, not to mention that he is still a big boy, when he was first introduced to the silk teacher, he was still a college student, and he was full of bookishness.

The silk of the Tang Dynasty was mostly practical products such as ribbons. The weaving technique is mainly influenced by the method of weaving brocade and weft brocade, generally based on Qi Yi or Ping, and there are obvious gaps between the junctions of flowers and fields, that is, "waterways".

Before making a silk fan, you must first think about what kind of fan you want to make, whether the border is pentagonal or plum blossom or other.

That is, there is a small void or break between the pattern and the plain ground and the color and the color, "bearing the empty view, such as the image of carving", so it is called silk, also known as carved silk, kesi, carved color.

In a small alley in the ancient city of Suzhou, there is a lot of traffic outside the door, people come and go, and the looms in the small courtyard rustle. When it comes to silk or embroidery, most people will have a picture of a woman sitting in front of an embroidery frame, holding an embroidery needle, embroidering a beautiful picture with multicolored silk threads; But the picture I see today is a post-80s boy doing it in front of the weaving frame.

There are not many young people who learn silk, not to mention a big boy, when he was first introduced to the silk teacher, he was still a college student, full of bookishness, and now he has mastered the silk proficiently, and continues to innovate.

Silk is a kind of "weaving holy product" that was once used to make "dragon robes" and was once only enjoyed by princes and nobles. With dozens of shuttles and different weaving methods alternately used in silk threads, the imagination is omnipotent.

A few years ago, Hao Naiqiang, who studied weaving and dyeing at Soochow University, saw silk for the first time and understood that this was the highest standard of warp and weft interweaving skills by Jiangnan craftsmen, and he fell in love at first sight.

With the proficiency of technology, Hao Naiqiang wants to find fresh materials in raw materials as much as possible. "It was spring in the south of the Yangtze River, and the new shoots of willow trees made me suddenly think about whether I could use willow branches instead of silk threads for silk."

As he says, he selects wicker of uniform thickness, peels it, air-dries it, and weaves it.

Care should be taken when weaving to avoid the silk threads being cut by willow branches. In the end, this silk is finished with silk as the warp and willow as the weft, because the toughness and texture of the willow branch itself have constructed sufficient gaps, which is very suitable for making tea mats and tea sets heat insulation mats. This set of silk willow branch tea ceremony became part of his graduation creation.

Hao Naiqiang especially likes the fans of the Forbidden City, and this reason is that someone asked him to make an imitation of the silk hidden fan of the Forbidden City.

At that time, there was a girl who went to school abroad and wanted a silk fan from the Forbidden City. He knew very well how difficult the task was, and he wanted to decline politely, but the girl repeatedly pleaded, saying that it would be good not to ask for the same, and that it would be good to do it, so he decided to give it a try.

With just one picture downloaded from the Internet, the fan silk went quite smoothly. The production of the fan frame was full of twists and turns, but fortunately, it was finally enlightened after a friend's click. But when the fan was finally delivered to the girl, the girl said that she was not satisfied with the details of the first attempt. "I did my best to fulfill a promise, and the hard work I put in the middle was ended by a simple sorry, and I felt very uncomfortable."

Since then, the stubborn Hao Naiqiang has devoted himself to research, and has successfully copied many Forbidden City silk fans.

In 2014, the Forbidden City fan was reinstated, with exquisite skills and exemplary performance, which amazed the Quartet.

Hao Naiqiang's studio has many veteran silk craftsmen who were invited by him to come and work with him, and they taught him a lot of silk skills and experience.

And Hao Naiqiang continues to practice his fresh ideas about silk. In terms of silk patterns, they replaced the traditional patterns with some paintings and calligraphy of modern masters; Some people thought of using cashmere in weaving, and the result was a fabric that felt soft and delicate compared to traditional silk fabrics; Using silk fabric to make iPad bags and dolls, traditional silk has also been given the atmosphere of this era in their hands.

Hao Naiqiang said that engaging in silk is from the love of the heart. "So, I never thought that doing this craft would bring me any fame or fortune. I don't know how to do business, and I am most concerned about what kind of work I can make and how I can help the old silk craftsmen improve the environment. ”

The silk craft can be traced back to the Han and Wei dynasties at the earliest, and the development of the Song Dynasty was the most prosperous.

At first sight, shallow scholars may confuse it with embroidery or brocade, but in fact, in terms of artistic value and manufacturing process, silk is superior.

The so-called silk is a kind of fabric made of raw silk distributed in warp threads on the loom, and then shuttled and woven with cooked silk weft on it. Pay attention to "through the warp and weft", which means that the warp is the bottom, constantly continuous, and the weft shape is truncated at will. The warp threads are made up of countless fine strips of raw silk, which gradually merge into one weave to form a solid base cloth, while the wefts of different colors are gradually beautifully shaped by the exquisite techniques of the craftsmen. The weaving technique is unique, and the pattern on both sides of the finished product is completely consistent, which is wonderful.

An excellent silk work, pay attention to the visual three-dimensional vivid, the touch is flexible and conforming, known as the "weaving of the holy product".

From the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty to the Kangqian period of the Qing Dynasty, silk became a symbol of imperial power, and it was rarely circulated among the people.

The reason why it has been occupied by the royal family for a long time in history is that the silk is not only expensive in materials, but also uses silk, gold and silver thread, peacock feathers, etc., and the production process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. A skilled silk craftsman can only weave a few inches a day, and even a few centimeters can only produce a few centimeters if he encounters complex patterns. It is no wonder that there has long been a saying in the market that "an inch of silk is an inch of gold" and "like a woman's clothes, it will be completed all year round". In the long course of time, it has been sought after among the royal family and nobles, but it is difficult to enter the public eye.

In 2006, Wang's silk once imitated a "gown" of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and five craftsmen spent three years using 6,000 peacock feathers and 100,000 meters of gold thread imported from Japan.

Unlike calligraphy and painting, which can be imitated and copied in a short period of time, there are few fakes in silk. Calligraphy and painting can be swayed, the silk is missing, the whole article will be detracted from the color, each work comes out, from the craftsman's skilled skills and day and night hard work.

"Now many people don't even know how to pronounce the word '缂'." Sitting in front of the loom, Wang Yuxiang, the silver-haired inheritor of "Ben Silk Silk", said.

Wang Yuxiang, who was born in 1946, witnessed the rise and fall of the silk industry, after the reform and opening up, the silk skills faced the dilemma of gradually disappearing, but in the seventies of the last century, Japan began to import silk products from China, in addition to most of the clothing used for kimonos and robes, but also introduced it as a decorative element of the famous family.

When a large number of Japanese orders flew in, the silk industry also rose, but the good times did not last long, with the Japanese economic recession, orders slowly decreased, and the silk once again faded out of the public's sight.

Now, the folk can still vaguely find the remaining silk kimono belts customized by Japan at that time, with exquisite skills and high charm.

From an artistic point of view, silk is undoubtedly beautiful, but there are fewer and fewer people who are willing to spend years for it. This skill can only be done by hand, not by machine, and if you want to learn this craft, you can't start without three years. Moreover, the character and heart of the craftsman are above the skill and are difficult to describe.

Most of the silk craftsmen are old, but the new generation of inheritors is hard to find. Fortunately, these craftsmen who are still sticking to the silk craftsmanship sit in front of the loom as usual, calm and calm, and weave brilliant colors in loneliness and simplicity.

Silk since ancient times has "an inch of silk and an inch of gold" and "the saint of weaving" said, it is based on silk as raw materials, with the technique of "through the warp and weft", so that the weaving pattern is like carving, so it is also called "carved silk" and "Kesi".

It is difficult to verify when the silk originated, but judging from the physical objects handed down, it was as early as the Han and Wei dynasties in China. In the Tang Dynasty, the skills had reached the pinnacle, and a high-quality court silk work could be woven using a variety of precious materials such as pure gold thread, pure silver thread, peacock feathers, etc., which was ingenious.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the capital moved south, and many skilled craftsmen were also brought to the south, and the silk was popular and developed in Songjiang and Suzhou during this period, and was basically concentrated in Suzhou Lumu, Likou and Guangfu in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has been passed down to this day. During this period, the silk was used by the emperor and monopolized by the royal family, and most of the emperor's new clothes were served by Suzhou silk artists.

Compared with other silk handicrafts, silk can not only be used as an appreciation collection, but also has a very strong practicality. Because of its special technology, it can also be used to make clothing, hand rolls and other products, the strength of clothing silk is higher than other silk handicrafts, the silk artwork that has survived to this day through the ages, it should be said that the silk is the most well-preserved.

In addition, there are very few fakes of silk, because it is too difficult to imitate. To counterfeit silk works, the cost and difficulty are much greater than any handicraft. A scarf-sized piece alone contains thousands of progressive colors that would take a skilled technician months to complete.

In the auction market in recent years, silk works have attracted much attention, such as the 2004 China Guardian Spring Auction, "King James Supplement Engraved Duan Shilan Pavilion Tu Ti Silk Volume", which is the longest artwork of ancient silk works that can be seen at present, auctioned for more than 30 million yuan, in 2008, "Qianlong Silk Sanskrit Dharani Yellow Sutra" was sold for more than 70 million yuan.

In order to escape the war in the Southern Song Dynasty, his ancestors moved his family to Zhanghua Village, Lumu Town, Suzhou, and the history of my family's silk can be traced back to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, which is very famous in the hometown area, and is known as "Wang's silk".

His great-grandfather, great-grandfather and grandfather were all craftsmen of the Qing court, Gaozu Wang Jinzhu specialized in making court dragon robes and gowns, great-grandfather Wang Xinding had made eight immortal celebration robes and xia veils for the Empress Dowager Cixi, grandfather Wang Jinting's work "Magu Offering Longevity" in 1915 to participate in the Panama International Exposition and won awards, and his father Wang Maoxian is the fourth generation, at the age of 14 with his father to learn art, he can weave the emperor's dragon robe, various palace clothes, Zhongtang screen and dragon chair cushions.

He listened to his father, when the imperial court for the Empress Dowager Cixi to do the birthday, to make the Eight Immortals to celebrate the birthday of the robe made into a cloak, due to the tight time, at that time in order to catch up with the task, the great-grandfather put the loom on the ship, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal while rushing to the north, when he arrived in Beijing, he was just finished, handed over to the palace house, as scheduled to make a Xia curtain, great-grandfather also became a generation of famous craftsmen.

The eight textile machines he now uses in his studio at the Yuyao Community Service Center in Xiangcheng District are all handed down from his ancestors. From his great-grandfather Wang Jinting to his grandson, seven generations have been engaged in silk work.

The earliest one was probably more than 20 years ago, the dragon robe of Emperor Qianlong in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing was damaged, and I found many places but did not find anyone who could make up for it. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.