Liu Xianglan, a national representative inheritor of the traditional spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills of the Li nationality - between the warp and weft, weaving beautiful Li brocade (a craftsman's unique skill)
【Special point of view】
Spinning, dyeing, weaving, embroidering... Liu Xianglan, the national representative inheritor of the traditional Li nationality's traditional spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills, and a native of Panmao Village, Wuzhishan City, Hainan, has been focusing on the inheritance and promotion of Li brocade skills for more than 40 years, constantly breaking traditions, pioneering and innovating , let the traditional skill of Li brocade weaving glow with new vitality.
Sitting on the ground with the belt wrapped around his waist; straightening his legs and stepping on the warp sticks... After fixing the warp beams at both ends of the loom, Liu Xianglan divided the warp into upper and lower layers with the warp-separating sticks, inserted the weft with both hands, and held the brocade with the right hand. With a wooden knife, the weft thread is tightened between pulling and pulling, and dense cloth is woven inch by inch.
Heddle bar jacquard, broken weft weaving color, complex techniques weave exquisite patterns.
The weaving tool used by Liu Xianglan is the waist loom, and the weaving technique used is the traditional brocade technique of the Li nationality.
"I started learning brocade at the age of 13, and I learned with my mother at that time." With the ups and downs of lifting healds, Liu Xianglan recounted her experience when she first learned brocade.
In the blink of an eye, 40 years have passed, and now the Li brocade she knits sells well at home and abroad.
"Nine Immortals and Weaving Girls descended into the mortal world and created Li Jin for three thousand years..." The craftsmanship of the Chinese nation is both traditional and fashionable.
According to Liu Xianglan, each weaving and embroidering of a Li brocade work requires four steps of spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery, and it takes at least three or four months.
Between latitude and longitude, Li Jin is an art polished by time.
"Spinning, usually collecting sea island cotton and wild hemp in the rainy season, and slowly rubbing it with a spinning wheel." Liu Xianglan said that this step is the most test of patience and often takes the longest.
The rough fibers are first stained into hemp, which is then twisted into hemp yarn, which is eventually woven into a fine, soft cloth.
She broke apart a piece of turmeric and dipped it in the water, rubbed it lightly with a spatula, and the water suddenly fainted in a golden circle.
Soak the fabric in this golden water, and the fabric will be dyed in a while.
"The stems of turmeric can be dyed yellow, the indigo leaves are yellow-black, and the bark of wild chestnut, hematoxylin and maple are also commonly used dyeing materials."
In Liu Xianglan's Li brocade works, the background colors are mostly black, blue-black, and occasionally red.
White, yellow, green, purple, etc. appear more as a comprehensive combination.
"Traditional Li brocade is mostly blue and black, which is resistant to dirt during labor and easy to wash." Liu Xianglan said, "Now the days are better, and the color matching is more abundant than before."
Among the four steps of Li brocade weaving, "weaving" may not be the most difficult and time-consuming, but it is the most varied and dynamic.
On a small waist loom, there are 17 kinds of tool combinations; front weaving, reverse weaving and double weaving, the weaving methods are different; the warp and weft lines are arranged in a staggered way, and there are many possibilities for combination.
Li brocade is woven with a waist loom. The weaver sits on the ground, using the body as a frame, and between picking and beating the weft, the complexity of the jacquard is even more beautiful than that of professional machines.
Liu Xianglan stood up and began to introduce Li Jin's works hanging in the room.
"The patterns of these three works incorporate the characteristic elements of the Li nationality, and the one embroidered with mandarin ducks..." She said that there are at least more than 100 kinds of embroidery patterns of Li brocade, which embodies people's yearning for a better life.
Such a fascinating Li Jin once faced the situation of no successor.
In the past, Li Jin was a difficult craft to learn, and he could only rely on his master to lead his apprentices to practice.
In Liu Xianglan's view, Li Jin's inheritance needs to adapt to the changes of the times.
So, in 2005, she set up a brocade company to bring together women in the village to make brocade.
Two years later, with the help of relevant departments, she founded the Wuzhishan Li Nationality Brocade Brocade Institute, offering free brocade skill training courses.
In the past, only women could learn Li brocade weaving, but Liu Xianglan passed on her brocade skills to her son, who in turn passed it on to her grandson.
The youngest grandson, Wang Chengye, started learning brocade at the age of 3. Now he is only 7 years old, and he has already learned 4 kinds of brocade patterns of the Li nationality.
Liu Xianglan also combines traditional Li brocade with modern craftsmanship to develop cultural and creative products.
When a series of exquisite patterns appeared on bags, shirts, ties, even mosquito repellent stickers and business card boxes, Li Jin's charm gradually became famous.
In June 2009, Liu Xianglan was rated as the national representative inheritor of the traditional textile, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills of the Li nationality. ".
Today, more than 10 years later, Li brocade weaving skills have become one of the few projects that have significantly improved the endangered status among the 67 projects listed in the "List of Urgently Needed Protection". More than 2,100 Li women are engaged in Li brocade weaving in Wuzhishan City alone.
"There are no two identical Li brocades in the world, and Li brocades should continue to innovate and develop." Liu Xianglan said, "The colors of Li brocades show their vitality in a strong visual impact. Inheriting old skills, we must not stick to the old and keep seeking new ones. Seek change and let Li Jin show stronger vitality."
Our reporter Sun Haitian