What is meant by picking flowers?

A type of handicraft in which a number of very small crosses are picked out with colored threads on the warp and weft of cotton or linen to form a variety of patterns. It is usually picked on pillows, tablecloths, garments, etc., as decoration.

Picked flowers are mainly popular among the Miao people in areas from central Guizhou west to Yunnan. Some of the floral threads like to use dark blue and aqua, some like to use orange-yellow set with other mixed colors. Pick flower needlework and embroidery is different, is a flat cloth as a base, picking, first outline with a line, and then according to the pattern of a yarn or several yarns across the needle, can not be messed up, and more is the back of the pick, the front to see. Patterns are mostly geometric, often with different patterns of several small flowers into a large, diamond-shaped jacket square. Among them, the suburb of Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, Zijin and other counties are the most refined, extremely prestigious. Let's take the flower picking of the Miao people of Sichuan-Guizhou-Dianyang dialect as an example to illustrate the characteristics and techniques of Miao flower picking. The peach blossoms of Miao women of Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan dialect are made of flat cloth, with the warp and weft yarns of the cloth crossed in the shape of "ten" as the "coordinates", and pins inserted diagonally in the shape of "x", commonly known as the "cross flower". "Cross flower", or "a" shape, known as the flat pick flowers. Both are the basic stitches of the flower picking, but also the smallest unit.

The technique of flower picking is divided into two kinds of picking and dark picking. Ming pick is the front pick, front view; dark pick is the reverse pick, front view. Ming pick of the needle is easy to learn, the use of the most common; dark pick must be a longer period of exercise, skillful only, only individual areas used.

Now according to the pattern of innovation, needlework proficiency and works of fine and coarse, divided into three categories: Category I: pattern is basically geometric, its basic form is a few long parallel lines side by side, which has a number of squares in the double long parallel lines between the addition of a horizontal line into a number of squares, there are folded into the "U" shaped, there are a single line or double line Diamond-shaped, a large square set of small squares and was "back" shape, there are many straight lines crossed into a net, and so on. If there is a large gap in the middle of the various forms, that is, pick small flowers to fill. Small flowers is also the basis of the pattern, common are: x, #, ten, mouth, back, V, and dots, swirls and so on. These are mostly traditional basic patterns with few changes. In some areas of Weining Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, the two long parallel lines of picking flowers must be added to pick a number of squares. Legend has it that the square lattice represents the original field where the ancestors lived, because their distant ancestors were forced to move and stayed in their original place of residence and made this. The squares represent the original fields, the red strips of cloth in the squares represent fish, the patterns represent snails and starfish, and the curved strips represent trees. Some of the Miao in southern Sichuan have similar patterns and legends. These are commemorative patterns and must not be altered or abandoned at will. However, the basic patterns can be connected, according to their own needs and favorites, picked into a variety of top and bottom, left and right symmetrical flower clusters, block flowers, group flowers and stripes of flowers, etc., without restriction. This kind of basic pattern is mainly popular in western Guizhou, southern Sichuan, Yunnan, northwestern Gui and other places in some of the Miao.

The second type: picking long parallel lines and adding horizontal lines into many squares, the same as the first type, and the first type of basic pattern. But the basic pattern also has round, semi-circular, gourd, round hook, round hook vine string, S-shaped, petals, vortex, small circles, trapezoidal and so on. Because of the half-circle curve, some areas will pick out the image of galloping horses, flying butterflies, figures and so on. In some areas, picking and embroidery are used in conjunction with each other, mostly with peach blossoms as the frame and embroidery filling it. The combination of picking and embroidery is mostly used for flowers, poultry, and large swirls. Each cluster of flowers in this type is symmetrical from left to right, and also from top to bottom. Commonly, the full width floral pattern is basically the same left and right. In some areas, the full-width floral decoration is covered with swirls, semicircles, curves, and other patterns, which at first appear to be irregular, but the two pairs of corners are often symmetrical to each other. This kind of pattern, most of which belongs to the traditional pattern, only a small part of which has been reformed. Mainly popular in central Guizhou, Yunnan, southern Sichuan, part of northern Gui, Hainan Province also belongs to this type of pattern. The first and second types of pick flowers, each with a part of the region with a coarse cloth as a base, colorful thick line (a few with a white background and black line) into the pick, the process is simpler, the pattern is rugged.

The third category: in the traditional pattern and peach blossom process on the basis of the "more reform. The basis of the pattern is more than the first two types, picking flowers process is also more exquisite than the first two types. For example, in Anshun City, Guizhou Province, some of the basic patterns of the Miao flower picking, both traditional and some new samples. The horses, butterflies, etc. are picked out with coordinated proportions of limbs and realistic forms; the picking work is exquisite, the layout is sparse and dense, and the style is chic. Another example is the Chaoyang and Huchao areas in Huaxi District of Guiyang City, where Miao women have more basic patterns, especially in Chaoyang. According to rough statistics, there are more than 30 kinds of basic patterns, which have greatly exceeded the original number of species. Peach blossom techniques have also made bold reforms, changing the traditional method of picking the front to see the front for the reverse pick, the front to see. Pick out the pattern, the big difference of two kinds: one is geometric, full of comprehensive cloth, exquisite craftsmanship, colorful, but the basis of the pattern is less. The other is a group of flowers, that is, to pick a number of basic patterns united into flower clusters, and then by a number of flower clusters synthesized into a group of flowers. Flower clusters and clusters of flowers, the top, bottom, left and right patterns are symmetrical with each other, the most basic patterns, and the most complicated process. The finished product has sparse and dense patterns, flower clusters have complex and simple, reflecting each other, elegant and beautiful.