-Traditional Handicraft Technology (Copyright: People's Republic of China * * * and Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Culture)

Printing and dyeing technology of Nantong blue calico

Time: 26 Category: Traditional Handicraft Technology

Region: JiangsuNo.: VIII-24

Reporting area or unit: Nantong, Jiangsu Province.

In the old days, every household in rural areas of Zhejiang and Jiangsu would weave and dye cloth. The clothes worn by the older generation, the daily baggage, and even the dowry of their daughters are all blue printed fabrics printed and printed by their own textiles. Curtains, headscarves, aprons, bags, curtains and so on can all be made of it. Blue calico seems to be the special cloth for working people.

The main producing area of blue calico in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is Nantong. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Nantong, Jiangsu Province has been a cotton textile base in China, and the printed blue calico has been the world's clothing. The printing and dyeing technology of Nantong blue calico has continued to this day, and daily necessities are made by hand-spinning, hand-weaving and hand-dyeing. The printing and dyeing patterns are mainly plants, flowers and animals, and there are also simple geometric figures. It is deeply loved by the masses for its characteristics of dirt resistance, wear resistance, firmness, practicality and auspicious patterns. It is famous for its harmonious blue and white beauty, full of strong local flavor, natural and fresh. Nantong is a key area for research, development and production of folk blue calico in China, and is known as the hometown of blue calico in China. Folk use of blue grass pigment dyeing can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Xunzi, a great thinker in the late Warring States Period, witnessed the pigment transformation process of green blue grass and the process of dyeing it from yellow to green, from green to blue, and then to blue. He sighed that green was taken from blue, and blue was better than blue, which became an eternal famous saying that shine on you surpassed his predecessors and was better than blue.

indigo has developed into a blue dyeing technique, which has been more than a thousand years. "Qi Min Yao Shu O Planting Blue" written by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty specifically describes the method of pinching blue lake from blue grass: in mid-July, make a pit, make it a hundred bunches, make it a straw mud, make it five inches deep, and cover the walls with a straw. Cut the blue upside down in the pit, go into the water, and suppress the order with wood and stone. Stay overnight when it's hot, stay overnight when it's cold, percolate away, put the juice in an urn, put five liters of lime in a bucket, and drop it with your hands. Clear the water, don't make a small pit, and store it in the blue lake. Waiting like porridge, but also out of the urn, blue lake into yi. This is the world's earliest record of the operation of the blue lake making process.

Since ancient times, Nantong has simple folk customs, warm and humid riverside, which is especially suitable for cotton growth. Cotton planting is very common in local rural areas, and the local folk textile technology is very developed. Especially in the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo returned to his hometown of Songjiang, Jiangsu Province, after learning the textile technology of Li nationality, and introduced and improved the textile tools of Li nationality, which promoted the development of cotton spinning industry in Songjiang and Nantong. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, every family had wooden spinning wheels and looms, every family could hear the sound of looms, and every family had weavers. Nantong became a famous textile town. Cotton cloth has become quite popular among the people.

with the development of cotton spinning handicraft industry, a large number of blue grass is planted, and dyeing houses are increasing one after another. Nantong is warm and humid, especially suitable for the growth of bluegrass. The dye of blue calico is mainly made of bluegrass, which can be divided into four types according to the characteristics and growth environment of its family and genus, namely Polygonum, Indigofera, Indigofera and Isatis indigotica. Jiangsu is famous for its rich Polygonum blue. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the workshops of dyeing and weaving blue calico in Nantong have developed into large-scale markets. According to the Records of Nantong County in the Ming Dynasty, there are as many as 19 manual dyeing workshops registered in the Dyeing and Weaving Bureau.

People's requirements for daily necessities are constantly improving, and the original simple and rough graphics can no longer meet the people's aesthetic and life needs. Folk artists boldly absorb traditional art patterns such as paper-cutting, embroidery and wood carving, and constantly enrich the patterns of dyed blue calico. At the same time, with the development of oil-made umbrella industry, tung oil paper is used to engrave the pattern plate, which saves labor and time. After oiling, the pattern plate has strong water resistance and scratch resistance, long service life, richer pattern performance and more mature technology. The wide application of folk blue printed cloth has promoted the rapid development of the printing team. The printing team is also called the flower bearer. They only print, include pulp and do not dye, and provide various forms of flower plates for farmers. This kind of printing bear is also called bald printing in Jiangnan. They walk around the streets and villages, carrying soybeans and lime powder at one end and scraping tools and patterns at the other end. Customers can choose patterns for processing, and they constantly change patterns to achieve prosperous business. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were still nearly 1 people in Nantong. Farmers send the scraped grey cloth to a nearby dyeing house, or make their own indigo dyeing. Due to the increasing demand for blue printed cloth, the popularization of blue grass planting has also promoted the development of indigo industry.

The local raw materials for dyeing cloth and the convenient technology of self-spinning and self-weaving have made the dyeing and weaving industry in Jianghai area develop rapidly and gradually become a well-known specialty in China. The technology of blue calico spread from Jiangnan to Jiangbei, and from Suzhou and Nantong to all parts of Jiangsu, forming a main producing area centered on Jiangsu, and the products are not only supplied locally, but also sold well all over the country. The art of printing spread and influenced the whole country. The most typical blue calico is the pattern of white flowers on a blue background and blue flowers on a white background. White flowers on a blue background, only one flower plate is needed, and the patterns formed are not connected with each other. Generally, blue flowers on a white background are overprinted with two flower plates, the first flower plate is called the front page, and after being slightly dried, the second flower plate is printed, called the cover plate; Cover plate is to cover the connection part of the first pattern plate, so that the pattern connection is natural. It is difficult to engrave blue flowers on a white background, and they are generally from masters of folk artists. This traditional process with blue and white backgrounds has a complicated production process.

Nantong folk blue calico is made by hand spinning, hand weaving and hand dyeing. Its patterns are all carved by hand, and each engraved paper plate is like paper-cutting art, with a simple, rough and lively style, and its artistic image is often highly generalized and exaggerated, with strong local characteristics. The technique of folk blue printing has basically maintained the traditional craft for hundreds of years, and its specific production process is as follows:

1. Selecting grey cloth

Farmers generally choose fine cotton cloth to dye blue printed cloth; Ordinary grey cloth is mainly dyed with pure blue.

2. Degreasing

Soak the selected cloth in water containing auxiliaries such as Taikoo Oil at a temperature of 5-6℃, then put the cloth in clean water, and take it out to dry in the sun after 2-3 days.

3. Paper mounting

Paper plates used for engraving are usually made of 3-5 layers of paper. Paper is made of 2-3 layers of Guiyang paper or mulberry paper and 1-2 layers of Korean paper, which are brushed and mounted with self-made paste of flour, dried and brushed with a layer of cooked tung oil, and then flattened for use.

4. Drawing samples and replacing plates

First, use a self-made brush (4-5 cm in diameter) made of wool, bind one end tightly, and then use the brush with a little pigment powder to replace the original sample or redesign a new sample.

5. Engraving patterns

Generally, two or three layers of oil-coated paper (kraft paper) are used to bind together, and a general pattern is drawn on the kraft paper. A self-made carving knife is used instead of a pen to engrave, and the knife should be vertical at all times, so as to make the upper and lower layers have the same pattern. After cutting the bevel with iron sheet, the carving knife is clamped and bandaged with bamboo sheets. Carving knives can be divided into three types: single knife with oblique mouth, double knife and round knife (commonly known as chisel) made of iron. Single-knife faceted, with the same width of lines carved by double knives, and the chisel is divided into several sizes, mainly to chisel the dots needed for making flower plates.

in engraving, there are ways to carve facets, lines and dots. Faces mainly use the knife-breaking method to show large patterns, which is also the most typical knife-cutting method in blue calico. The lines in blue calico patterns should be carved smoothly and smoothly, and the lines are divided into negative lines and positive lines. Generally, self-made tools are used to engrave dots, and dots generally play a decorative role in patterns. In addition to engraving, there are substitutes. The early used pages are painted to keep the patterns, and then engraved, so that they can be used repeatedly.

6, tung oil

first, smooth the reverse side of the engraved pattern with pebbles, then brush tung oil for reinforcement, dry it, brush the front and back sides with oil for 2-3 times, finally dry it and flatten it, classify and save it, and you can directly print, spin and dye it when needed.

7. Scraping

Before scraping, the grey cloth is sprinkled with water and then rolled, so that the white cloth can better absorb the dyed pulp. Corn flour, wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, etc. have been used as anti-dye slurry for folk blue cloth. After several generations' exploration and practice, soybean flour with moderate viscosity was finally selected. However, simple soybean flour is easy to deteriorate in summer, and the cost is high. After adding lime powder, it is not only easy to scrape the sizing, but also easy to scrape the mortar after dyeing. Therefore, people always use soybean flour and lime to make anti-dye slurry, and the ratio is 1:.7, and water is added to make it into paste. Sometimes glutinous rice flour and lime are also used as dye-proof pulp according to the pattern requirements. The thickness (viscosity) should be moderate when mixing the pulp. The finer the soybean flour and the more thoroughly the pulp is mixed, the better the viscosity will be.

put the engraved pattern on the white cloth to scrape the pulp. Force should be even when scraping pulp. Scrapers are generally forged from iron in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the handles are made of round wood. In Hunan and Hubei, they are also made of horns and boards. It is more important to pick up the plate when scraping the pulp. When the pattern is complex, the plate should be accurate and the typesetting should be free. Then, it takes two days to dry the grey cloth with dye-proof pulp in the shade, and after the mortar is dried, it is put into the cylinder for dyeing.

8. Dyeing

Pour indigo into a small jar, mix 5 kg of indigo with 8 kg of lime and 1 kg of rice wine, and add appropriate amount of water to stir, so that the indigo water turns yellow and indigo foam appears on the water surface, which is commonly known as indigo flower in folk, and then pour it into a large jar for dyeing. Before dyeing, put the bamboo basket in the middle of the vat to prevent the dyed cloth from sinking into the bottom of the vat and raising the foot of the vat, which will affect the dyeing. Then, open the scraped cloth and soak it in water until the cloth is soaked until the size is soft, and then it can be dyed in the vat. After laying the cloth in the cylinder for 2 minutes, take it out for oxidation and ventilation for 3 minutes, and constantly rotate the cloth surface to make it evenly oxidized. The time of laying the cylinder and oxidation can be adjusted according to different fabrics and climate change.

The pure blue calico is due to the use of plant dye-bluegrass. According to "Records of Tongzhou in Guangxu", it is recorded that planting blue becomes a border, mowing the head blue in May, mowing the second blue in July, soaking a pool of water, soaking it in lime, stirring it for a thousand times, and removing the water, which is indigo. Used to dye cloth, called small cylinder green. A person who comes out of Rugao is especially good at fame. Sowing in spring and harvesting in autumn, the leaves are soaked in a stone pool, and after a few days, the rotten branches are removed, and lime or clam powder is added to make it precipitate. The dye after precipitation looks like soil, commonly known as indigo.

On May 7th every year, Nantong people harvest the local bluegrass and process it as the dyeing pigment of blue printed cloth. In the Ming Dynasty, indigo was a tribute to the imperial court, which gave the blue calico a pure and dignified rhyme. Plant dyes are specially formulated to make vat water for printing and dyeing blue printed cloth. Each vat is more than one person high, and it contains running water that will not die for thousands of years. Printed white cloth and cloth painted with mortar are put into the vat water, and microorganisms constantly move in the vat water, dyeing the parts without mortar with blue, and keeping the original Bai Jing for the parts stained with gray.

Careful maintenance of dye vats is a unique skill passed down from family to family. In order to keep secret, dye vat people always adjust their recipes in time after carefully examining the dye vat water every night. Every morning, before dyeing the cloth, the master will see whether the dyeing water in the vat is mature, scoop up the seedling water in the vat with a bowl, first rub it lightly on your head with your index finger, and then put it on the seedling water at the edge of the bowl to see the color. If the water in the bowl is pushed away quickly, the indigo water in the vat will have a big color. On the contrary, the water in the vat must be adjusted by gray wine before dyeing. Dye vat water is the life source of blue printed cloth, and dye vat people are also respected artists in dye houses.

9. Scraping

The dyed cloth is dried and then scraped, and the dyed resist pulp is scraped off. After drying in the sun, the gray and alkali of the cloth out of the cylinder are too heavy, so it is necessary to eat acid to fix the color. After cleaning, stretch the cloth on the bracket, and scrape off the mortar with a customized two-end circular ash scraper or household kitchen knife at an angle of 45 with moderate force. Be especially careful not to scratch the cotton cloth when scraping pulp. The light floating mortar was removed from the dyed cloth, and the seal was exposed. Where the mortar block is large, the gray layer naturally cracks in the rolling of dyeing, and indigo penetrates into the gray cloth with the cracks, leaving a natural texture that can not be described manually. Natural texture is the soul of blue calico art.

1. Cleaning and drying

After scraping the dust, the cloth needs to be cleaned for 2-3 times, and the mortar and floating color remaining on the cloth surface are cleaned and dried. Due to the influence of technological factors such as scraping, dyeing and drying, the length of blue printed cloth is generally limited to less than 12 meters. The dyeing master uses a long bamboo pole to pick the wet cloth on a 7-meter-high drying rack, and the scene when drying is very spectacular. Finally, roll the cloth flat with a kick stone.

the dyed cloth is dark blue. After drying in the sun, it gives people the feeling of magnolia officinalis and heavy reality, so some people call it old blue cloth. After dyeing, the shallow floating mortar is scraped off, and the place sealed by the mortar reveals its true color. Where the mortar block surface is large, the gray layer naturally cracks in the rolling of dyeing, and indigo penetrates into the gray cloth with the gap, leaving a natural ice pattern that cannot be described manually. Even by the same artist, the printed patterns are different and varied. Folk artists are praised for their superb skills and unique artistic style of blue calico. 95% rural families in Nantong area use self-spun and self-woven white cloth to print blue calico and make various daily necessities. In recent centuries, the only printed cloth that people get along with day and night is blue printed cloth. This kind of blue-and-white cloth rooted in the folk customs reflects the national psychological characteristics and becomes a medium for farmers to convey and communicate their inner feelings.

The pattern composition of blue printed cloth is restricted by the technology, and the engraved pattern is influenced by the broken knife. Folk artists should consider both the durability of the pattern and the image characteristics of the engraved pattern. Artists skillfully applied bold and exaggerated techniques to depict the auspicious and wishful artistic conception loved by the public, created many simple and childish and colorful images of flowers, trees, birds and animals, and interpreted many folk fairy tales.

In the pattern modeling, the dots and lines in white flowers with blue background are mainly used, and sometimes the patterns are composed of pure dots. In the blue flowers with white background, the dots, lines and surfaces are generally staggered, and the patterns are mostly rough and powerful, and their shapes are full of fantasy, and many of them still retain the traces of primitive art. Its pattern combination, rough but not dull, more but not cumbersome, gives people the enjoyment of blue and white beauty. The dots of the blue calico pattern not only have the meaning of auspiciousness, many children and many grandchildren, but also can be regarded as dotted lines and imaginary surfaces when they are densely packed. Its lines and pens are disconnected, rich in sense of direction, and have a strong expression of change and movement. In the long-term practice, artists make use of its changes such as its straightness, thickness and length, and combine with different image characteristics to flexibly use it to properly express the texture and structure of the image. No matter the scenery, people, animals and plants, etc., we can use points, lines and surfaces to describe the image characteristics and carve them into various shapes, such as chrysanthemum petals, peony petals and plum petals. It refines and generalizes nature to a high degree, regularizes the natural image, and makes the patterns reflect nature through processing, but they are not bound by nature.

folk blue calico has a strong local flavor, which is especially loved by cities and white-collar workers. It is suitable for folk daily decorations, and can be used as clothing, head cloth, quilt cover, cloth bag, bag, door curtain and so on.

in recent years, with the improvement of people's aesthetic concept of folk printing and dyeing handicrafts, blue calico has developed from single-sided printing to double-sided printing, from monochrome to multicolor in printed varieties, from printed small cloth to wide cloth, and from pure cotton to printed silk, cotton silk and other varieties of calico fabrics. Blue calico, deep blue and pure static white, is colorful on ordinary cotton cloth.