Classification of silver decoration technology

The number of women who speak Miao language and Guizhou Oriental dialect wearing silver ornaments is the largest among Miao people in some areas. The production technology and varieties are also first-class. Generally speaking, it can be divided into three categories. Exquisite craftsmanship, complicated working procedures and beautiful finished products. This kind of silver ornaments mainly include silver crown, silver phoenix, empty flower bracelet, silver thread woven bracelet, bun silver rope and so on. Silver is soft and malleable, and can be drawn into a ponytail-like filament. Bracelets, rings, hair ropes and other silver ornaments woven with this fine silver wire.

Silver crown

There are two structures. One is to use about 3mm wire as the skeleton, and then wrap hundreds of clusters of silver flowers on the wire frame as the hat top. The periphery of the hat is wrapped with a thin silver piece inlaid with diamond flowers, and the lower edge is decorated with dozens of silver pendants tied with silver chains. Silver pendants cover the eyebrows and ears. Mainly popular in Ping Huang, Shibing, northeast Kaili and Taojiang area in Leishan. Another kind of silver crown is decorated with silver flowers and silver bubbles. Wear a topless hat (that is, a headscarf that has only been wrapped twice) and insert four or five bunches of silver flowers in the interlayer. The structure of the flower cluster is that more than 30 silver labels with different lengths are welded at the outer end of the silver hairpin, and a refined silver flower is welded at the top of each label, and a wooden comb is inserted after bun. The wooden comb backpack is a thin piece of silver, and the periphery is covered with silver pendants, leaving only comb teeth. A silver phoenix and a pair of silver horns are inserted in the bun. The silver phoenix is pressed into a phoenix body by a model, with fine silver inlaid with exquisite diamond patterns as the phoenix body and head, and fine silver scissors as the welded tail and wings of the phoenix body. The tail feather is several times the length of the body. The silver horn is made of a thin piece of silver, on which dragon balls are finely drilled. A "silver fan" with fine patterns is inserted between the two corners of the dragon, which matches the silver horn and cannot be worn alone. This kind of silverware is very popular in Taijiang County and the suburbs of Ge Dong.

Empty flower bracelet

Silver fiber is used as small petals, several petals are welded together to form a flower cluster, and then several flowers are welded together to form a flower cluster. In addition, the finger-sized cup is made of thin silver, and the outer bottom of the cup is welded with small silver beads such as nipples. Four silver labels were made into bracelets, and then the silver labels were covered with flowers and silver cups and welded into bracelets. Silver thread woven bracelet: first, three or four thin silver threads are twisted into silver threads, and several are woven into hexagonal bracelets, which are inverted and hollowed out.

Silver rope

Woven with extremely thin silver thread into four sides, each side is about one point wide, and the pattern is straight and inverted "human" shape, about two feet long, which is quite soft. Tie it to the outside of the bun, let it bear the silver horn, and tie it with a silver rope. Popular in the border areas of Kaili, Majiang and Danzhai in Guizhou. Meticulous workmanship, various varieties and wide popularization, but the technology is not as complicated as the first one, and the skill is slightly inferior. Common finished products include: hollow diamond bracelets, badges, inlaid silver chains, bubble collars, hanging bell diamond collars, fine silver necklaces, silver bubbles, silver bells, diamond rings and so on. Diamond openwork bracelet: a thin piece of silver is drilled with fine patterns as the outer ring of the bracelet, and the other piece is not drilled with patterns as the inner ring. Each piece is rolled up like a scroll, inlaid and welded, and then fiber into a bracelet.

chest card

Chinese name is "collar pressing", which is a silver medal hanging on the chest. Use a piece of silver, press it into a pattern blank with a model, and drill the pattern carefully. A plurality of silver chains are welded along its lower edge, and several pieces such as silver bells and silver horns are welded at the lower end of each silver chain. A thick and long silver chain is welded on the upper edge of the silver medal and worn around the neck.

Inlaid silver chain

Generally used as a waist chain around the neck. It is made up of many small silver blocks about one centimeter square, which are connected in series with silver wires. Small silver pieces have patterns on both sides. Bubble collar: several square (about a little wide) long silver bars form dozens of circles, which cross and interlock with each other to form a long bubble. Finally, the long bubble flower fiber is made into a collar, and the two ends are tightly wound with thin silver thread. The top end is a ring, and the other end is a hook, which is interlocked when worn.

Diamond bell collar

Make the silver piece into a round collar, put it into a mold and press it into two dragon playing beads and other patterns, and then drill out the scales, whiskers, fins and claws of the dragon to make it clear. Seventeen holes (more or less, but odd) are drilled in the front of the collar for wearing short silver chains. The lower end of the silver chain is tied with silver bells, silver flowers, silver pieces and so on.

Silver bubble

This is the main ornament of silver clothing, which has two forms: one is a big silver bubble, in which a round silver piece with a big cup mouth is put into a model to press a dragon-shaped pattern, and holes are drilled in the pattern. The second is a small silver bubble, round and money-shaped. Both edges are tapered with silver eyes and nailed to clothes.

silver bell

The bell is spherical, as big as a cherry. It is made of two thin pieces of silver inlaid. There is a small iron sand in it, and there is a mouth at the lower part, and a small silver chain is welded on it. Silver bells can be hung on clothes alone, and can also be used as accessories for other large silver ornaments. The process is simple and artistic, but it needs a lot of silver. This kind of silver ornaments include collars, necklaces, bracelets, ear posts, earrings, rings and so on. , are not attached to a small piece of silver.

Leather scarf

There are spirals, round rods, etc. The spiral collar is made by hammering the tattooed silver into a square strip, with a large middle and thin ends, and the remaining two ends are round strips. In this square section, a long slot is drilled on each side, and then it is cold twisted into a spiral and a circle. Small collar, which is not as heavy as 10, is also hammered into a square, but it is usually twisted into a spiral shape, and there is no drilling groove, and the square part is round. Collars, regardless of size, are round at both ends, a hook at one end and a ring at the other, and are buckled at the back of the neck when worn. From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, the spiral collars made by wealthy families in Zhouxi, Kaili City, Guizhou Province and Wu Bai and Tonggu, Majiang County, weighed 50 taels. There is also a kind of collar, which combines four round silver labels the thickness of chopsticks and screws them together like a rope. The two ends are hammered into a whole, one is a ring and the other is a hook for wearing. There are two kinds of round and semi-round, both of which require less silver. The whole circle will hammer the silver bars into round sticks, some with simple flowers and some without flowers, and both ends will be made into the rings and hooks mentioned above. The semi-circular collar is made by pressing two pieces of silver into blanks and welding them. It is hollow, flat inside and semi-cylindrical outside. In order to prevent the collar from falling to the chest when wearing it, tin must be filled in the empty pipe. This kind of tin-filled collar is only popular among Miao people who moved to the present Southwest Guizhou Autonomous Prefecture and Anshun area hundreds of years ago, and belongs to the eastern dialect of Guizhou.

necklace

There are several kinds of necklaces, large, medium and small, which are made in the same way. They are all ring-buckled. Generally, it is a 20-ring ring, and there is no diamond pattern or other small silver pieces. Miao girls who use Miao language and Guizhou Oriental dialect in most areas, especially in Ping Huang, Shibing and the northeast of Kaili, Guizhou. From the early 20th century to the 1950s, necklaces of a few wealthy families weighed 100 taels, and individual families bid for 120 taels. Wear a few small and medium silver chains, several collars, bracelets, rings, silver crowns, silver clothes, ear posts and so on. , all can weigh about 300 liang. The size and shape of ear posts vary from place to place. Some are drilled with simple patterns, while others are plain. Among them, the ear column in Shidong area of Taijiang County is the largest, and the weight of each pair is often around five or two.