Fine thread (handicraft)

Traditional metal crafts made of gold, silver, copper and other metal wires, which are woven, piled, filled and inlaid. During the Warring States Period, China filigree was combined with gold and silver inlay and other techniques. The filigree "to ward off evil spirits", "sheep" and "dragon head" unearthed from the Western Han Tomb in Dingzhou, Hebei Province are the earliest physical objects. The development of filigree reached a climax in the Ming Dynasty, and many fine products appeared, such as the golden crown and phoenix crown unearthed from the Ming Dingling, with exquisite weaving and piling skills. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1908), Chengdu, Sichuan Province created flat-filled filigree products, including plates, boxes, bottles, ties and rings. Filament is mainly produced in Beijing and Chengdu. Beijing filigree is mostly inlaid and combined, and is good at weaving and stacking bases. Appreciation includes stoves, smoke, buildings, people, animals and so on. Among them, the production of architectural works is more complicated, which requires the use of various techniques such as piling up bases, weaving, pinching silk and inlaying. Daily necessities include wine glasses, cigarette cases, powder boxes, sugar boxes, wine sets, flower arrangements and so on. Chengdu silver wire products are formed without tire, with strict structure, clear pattern, exquisite and changeable, and mainly based on flat filling technology. Excellent works include Phoenix Spreading Wings, Proud as a Peacock, Yuyu Yingchun.

Before wire drawing, the silver bar should be pressed repeatedly on the winder until it becomes a square bar with appropriate thickness, and then the formal wire drawing can be started. A special manual drawing tool is called sketchpad, on which 40 to 50 eyelets with different diameters are arranged from coarse to fine. Eye holes are generally made of alloys and diamonds, and the smallest holes are thinner than hair. In the process of thinning, thick silk must pass through each eye hole in turn from big to small, and cannot be skipped. Sometimes it takes more than ten times to get the required filament. At first, the surface of the silver wire was rough and it took a lot of effort. After several draws, it gradually became smooth.

The monofilament drawn from the wire drawing plate has a smooth surface and is called "plain silk" in the industry. After certain processing, it can be twisted into various patterns of filaments, hence the name "filigree". The most common filament is made of two or three ordinary filaments, which is also the simplest and most basic style. More complicated are nearly 20 kinds of arch lines, slub lines, screws, yard lines, wheat ear lines, swallow lines, twist lines and pigtail lines, which are used to build various products.