History of Wuzhen Dyed Cloth

I, historical evolution

Blue printed cloth originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, flourished in the commercially developed Tang and Song dynasties, "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" volume records: "medicine spot cloth - to cloth wipe gray medicine and elegantly simple dyeing green, wait for dry, go gray medicine, then green and white, with figures, flowers and birds, Poetry in various colors, to fill the coverlet." ?

In the budding of capitalism in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the medicine spot cloth has been generally popular in the folk, so "ancient and modern book integration" property test said: "medicine spot cloth is commonly known as watering the flower cloth, now where all have it." "Guangxu Tongzhou Zhi" records: "planting blue into beds, May mowed said the first blue, July mowed said the second blue, glazed tile a pool of water, draw water into the lime, churned a thousand times, bailing out the water, that is, into indigo, used to dye cloth, said the small cylinder green." ?

Most of the styles of blue-printed cloth seen in modern times are works of the Ming and Qing dynasties. These mosquito nets, quilts, wraps, turbans, curtains and other household items made of blue printed cloth, simple and generous, fresh and bright colors, simple and beautiful patterns, was very popular. Therefore, the dyeing industry once became the local industry.

History shows that Tongxiang blue printed cloth was extremely prosperous at the time of Song and Yuan Dynasties, forming: looms all over the place, dyeing workshop even the street, the spectacular scene of the river boat weaving cloth, among which, Shimen (ancient name of Yuxi), "Feng Tongyu", "Tyson" and other dyeing store became the industry's leader. Among them, Shimen (ancient name of Yuxi) "Feng Tongyu", "Tyson" and other dyeing shops became the leaders of the industry. Produced by the "Ruihe Mingxiang", "years cold three friends" "plum bloom five rich", "durian bloom hundred children" and other prestigious.

Second, process introduction

Blue printed cloth, is a traditional hollow version of the white pulp anti-dyeing printing, also known as indigo cloth, commonly known as "medicine spot cloth", "pouring flowers cloth", has a history of 1,300 years. Initially, it was printed and dyed with blue grass as the dye. Blue printed cloth with lime, soybean meal synthetic mortar baked blue, using cotton, handmade textile, engraving, scraping pulp and other multi-channel printing and dyeing process made.

Three, process operation

Specific operation: from the polygonum blue grass to extract the blue as dye (indigo), the hollowed out plate spread on the white cloth, scraping the pulp board with anti-dyeing slurry scraping into the pattern of gaps leakage printed on the cloth, dry into the dyeing tank, the cloth under the tank for 20 minutes after taking out the oxidation, ventilation for 30 minutes, generally after 6 to 8 times repeatedly dyed to achieve the desired color.

Then it will be taken out in the air oxidation, dry and scrape off the anti-dyeing paste powder, that is, showing blue and white pattern. Because it is fully hand printed and dyed, the dried paste will inevitably have cracks, forming the unique charm of handmade blue printed fabric - ice cracks.

But nowadays, the machine printed fabric or blue printed fabric which does not adopt the traditional technique is clear blue and white, without any trace of handmade, so the protection of the traditional technique is imminent! Elegant beauty of the blue prints of the pattern of auspicious and festive, for the recent three hundred years for the common people.

Four, process classification

Blue printed cloth can be generally divided into two forms of blue and white flowers and white blue flowers. The blue white cloth only need to use a flower plate printing, constitute the pattern of spots are not connected to each other, for example: plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum. The production method of the white blue cloth, commonly used two flower plate printing, printing the first time called "flower plate", printing the second time called "cover plate".

The role of the cover plate is to cover up the connection point of the flower plate and the need to leave the white space, more clearly set off the blue floral prints. Another method of printing blue flowers on white ground, is to a separate printing plate lined with mesh, the pattern of the plate does not need to be connected to each place, carved with glue and lacquer will be glued to the plate on a large area of the mesh backing, and then scrape the printing paste.

Some blue prints are still double-sided, which requires scraping the paste on the front side after drying, the use of copy tables on the reverse side of the front pattern aligned with the scraping of the paste again, so that after dyeing can be obtained on both sides of the blue prints.

Blue printed cloth is a kind of ancient hand-printed fabric which was widely popular in the folk of Jiangnan. Her simple and elegant cultural flavor, in China's folk art is unique, thousands of years under the fragrance of the charm of the Oriental culture.

Expanded Information

Blue printed cloth, also known as indigo cloth, commonly known as medicine spot cloth, watering cloth, etc.. It is a traditional Han Chinese craft dyeing and printing products, skeletonized version of white paste anti-dyeing printing, has a history of 1,300 years.

Despite the pace of science and technology has been going faster and faster, but there are still many people are very fond of the traditional clothing patterns and patterns, let's art up to taste the "blue prints" this through the time of the fashion classics!

Blue calico was first dyed with the juice of bluegrass, and with the growing popularity, it is now made of lime powder, soybean ash powder and other raw materials into a gray slurry baked blue, and then use handmade, cotton and other crafts of meticulous printing and dyeing.

There is also a legend about blue prints:

There is a legend that once upon a time a young man accidentally fell on his head, and his clothes were dyed yellow, and he could not wash them off, but other people thought they were very beautiful.

This was known to a good friend of his, and the two engaged in the business of dyeing fabrics yellow.

One day, however, the cloth they were drying on a tree was blown to the ground by the wind, and it just so happened that a pair of polygonum grass was growing in that field, and this polygonum grass dyed the cloth a gorgeous blue color, and by the time they found the piece of cloth, the pattern on the piece of cloth had already become a "blue piece, a piece of green", and they also traced the indigo flowers back to the cloth, and they found that the cloth had become a blue piece. They also traced the mystery of the indigo cloth, and became the "grandmaster" of the indigo cloth.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Wuzhen

Baidu Encyclopedia - Blue Print Cloth