Chinanews, Urumqi, February 27th (La Xiaofei) "This felt embroidery product can be hung on the wall as an ornament, or spread on the sofa." Recently, a very At the heritage display event, a reporter from Chinanews.com saw Kulasi, the fourth-generation inheritor of the Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery intangible cultural heritage, who was introducing his works to the onlookers.
"There are quite a lot of people here today, and they should be able to sell all the products brought from the cooperative." With his unique ethnic style and exquisite composition, Kurasi sold a wool felt cushion and a pair of Pillowcase embroidered with flowers.
Kazakh household necessities
"Felt embroidery and cloth embroidery are traditional folk handicrafts of our Kazakh people, which have been handed down for hundreds of years." Kulasi told reporters that felt embroidery and cloth embroidery are embroidering various patterns on felt or cloth, with horns and horns. Sun, moon, stars, flowers, trees, etc. are all things that are often seen in life in pastoral areas.
The reporter learned that felt embroidery and cloth embroidery skills are a cultural treasure created by the Kazakh people who live by water and grass in their long-term production and life.
The embroidered content is closely related to grassland life, and the composition is mostly in the form of serial symmetry. The concept is ingenious, the embroidery is exquisite, and it presents a distinctive and unique national style.
It is not only practical, but also highly artistic and decorative. It is a very representative family handicraft of the Kazakh people.
Today, this intangible cultural heritage handicraft is spread in the areas where Kazak herdsmen live in Xinjiang.
Kurasi's family lives in the Hongqi Farm of the Sixth Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. She said that Kazakh girls have learned felt embroidery and cloth embroidery since they were young. felt.
Tapestry is widely used in the lives of Kazakhs. Tapestry is spread in the room, on the cushions, on the kang, and when going out to rest on the grassland. She has lost count of how many sheets of tapestry she has made.
Kurasi took out a tapestry from the exhibits and said that among all the tapestry, the tapestry that the girl took with her when she got married took the most painstaking efforts. This tapestry contains the girl's beautiful vision for love and future life, In addition, you can show your talents to your in-laws.
Therefore, girls to be married often spend several years embroidering this tapestry.
Kurasi introduces cloth embroidery works to customers.
Photo by La Xiaofei
Traditional craftsmanship is now "inclusive of all rivers"
Talking about her career in felt embroidery and cloth embroidery, Kulasi said with emotion that she has learned felt embroidery and cloth embroidery from her mother since she was a child. At the age of 14, she was able to make finished products independently. The inheritor mother-in-law Carmen has continued to study for more than 30 years.
"When I was young, I often saw my grandma and mother clean the wool, roll it into wool felt, and then mix salt, flour and milk together, and use a small stick to draw various patterns on the wool felt. My mother Drawing a pattern does not require any auxiliary tools, it is all drawn in one stroke."
The traditional Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery retain the original ecological production skills, and the materials are exquisite. The felt cloth for embroidery is made of pure wool.
The stitching method is rigorous, and the pattern is drawn with paint before embroidery, and then embroidered stitch by stitch.
Kulasi said that now she combines traditional hand embroidery with modern machine embroidery technology, which not only retains the original ecological national characteristics, but also greatly improves the production efficiency, creating conditions for the industrialization of felt embroidery and cloth embroidery.
"Look, this is the work I embroidered after my exchange and study in Suzhou." Kulasi opened the photo album of her mobile phone and showed the reporter her favorite rose embroidery embroidered with silk thread.
She said that the Suzhou embroidery technique is different from the traditional Kazakh technique in many ways, which inspired her in many places. This work was created after she learned the Suzhou embroidery technique combined with the traditional Kazakh technique.
In addition, Kurasi often participates in relevant intangible cultural heritage training and embroidery competitions, and exchanges ideas with inheritors from different regions.
"In 2016, I also won the first prize issued by the Xinjiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center in the Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery training "skill competition" activity."
Kulasi and his disciples display felt embroidered blankets.
Photo by La Xiaofei
Intangible heritage inheritance develops towards modernization and industrialization
In 2008, Kazakh felt embroidery and cloth embroidery were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Kurasi is both happy and worried. He is delighted that this marks the recognition, protection and inheritance of the national culture they have inherited from generation to generation, but he is also worried that he will not be able to pass on this craft well.
In order to better inherit the skills of felt embroidery and cloth embroidery, Hongqi Farm built a national handicraft industry incubation park covering an area of more than 1,300 square meters. Kulasi also established an embroidery cooperative in the incubation park with the help of the farm. He taught his skills unreservedly to the Kazakh women who came to learn.
The relevant person in charge of the farm said: "We purchased 44 embroidery machines, built 2 machine embroidery workshops and 2 hand embroidery workshops, and dispatched special brokers to negotiate orders with merchants to ensure the market sales of felt embroidery and cloth embroidery works. Form a linkage mechanism between the industrialization and marketization of felt embroidery and cloth embroidery."
Kulasi introduced felt embroidery and cloth embroidery techniques live.
Photo by La Xiaofei
Kulasi said that now that she has a fixed venue and advanced machines, she can bring her sisters to show off.
"We incorporate a lot of modern cultural elements into the embroidery to make the pattern more contemporary and enhance the appeal of culture and art. We also use some other regional techniques, such as Bian embroidery and Suzhou embroidery, to make the embroidery more diversified .”
"In the past, we all embroidered at home, and we couldn't embroider a few finished products in a month, and the embroidery products had no good sales. Now not only can we exchange and learn from the sisters in the cooperative, but the production of products is also faster, and the sales are also increasing. wider."
The picture shows the "Mongolia" handicraft of felt embroidery and cloth embroidery.
Photo by La Xiaofei
At the event site that day, the reporter saw that Kulasi and her apprentice Gulibatima Bilan introduced felt embroidery and cloth embroidery products to netizens through live broadcast on mobile phones.
"I also just started to try webcasting, which can not only let more people know about felt embroidery and cloth embroidery, but also increase our orders and income."
Kurasi said that in the future, she plans to promote the joint development of cooperatives, physical stores, and e-commerce platforms, so that more people can learn about felt embroidery and cloth embroidery techniques, and promote intangible cultural heritage products to the whole country and the world, so that this Kazakh national tradition Skills glow with new vitality and charm.
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