Chapter 63 Tie-dye

The cousin is Cheng Jun, who is an official in Qingshen and is now nearly fifty. The nephew-in-law Cheng Zhengfu is Banniang’s husband. As for the two nephews, they are Su Shi and Su Che.

Socializing with scholar-bureaucrats is also a compulsory course. The two nephews are pretty good, and they talk about my cousin's footprints, which means that they are almost at home all year round.

Having said this, Su You thought about going to Mrs. Cheng's place.

I went to Shahuxing to take the exam and Mrs. Cheng taught for a while. The two of them sat in the yard, one looking through the account book and the other consolidating the questions and taking notes.

Studying with Mrs. Cheng, Su You's anxious mind throughout the day would become extremely quiet and focused. He enjoyed this moment very much every evening.

Mother is always a child's harbor. He has been an orphan for two generations. Now he cherishes such time even more and regards Mrs. Cheng as his mother in his heart.

After finishing his homework, Su You asked: "Sister-in-law, does the new ledger work well?"

Mrs. Cheng used mental arithmetic, checked the total with a quill pen, filled in the total in traditional Chinese characters, closed the account book and said with a smile: "It's clear at a glance, I feel much more relaxed every day now."

After saying that, he took the needle and thread from the side and began to make female needlework.

Su You felt strange about the clothing material, so he stretched out his hand to touch it.

Mrs. Cheng smiled and said, "Have you never seen this kind of material? This is white folded cloth from the southern country of Dali."

Su You murmured: "Made of cotton? It doesn't look like it..."

Mrs. Cheng smiled and said: "This is not the kind of cotton that comes from the northwest. I heard that it is made from the cotton produced by a plant called kapok, which is as tall as a sycamore tree."

Now Su You understood, no wonder he felt different and said with a smile: "Is this true?"

Mrs. Cheng said: "Well, this is plain color. It is made into underwear for your cousin. It can be used to absorb sweat."

Su You said: "Actually, I prefer fine linen."

Mrs. Cheng said: "Fine linen is comfortable to wear in the summer, but the count is small and the patterns woven are too thick and uncomfortable for the eyes, so they are usually plain..."

Su You blurted out: "Of course we can't weave flowers, but we can print..."

The needlework in Mrs. Cheng's hand suddenly stopped: "Seal? How to seal?"

Su You was also startled: "Both batik and tie dye are fine..."

Mrs. Cheng said: "I know a lot about tie-dyeing. I can do caviar and deer tire valerian. The tie-dying skills of the southwestern Yi are also impressive, but I have never heard of batik."

After saying that, he went to get some pieces of fine linen and said, "Look, Xiaoyou, this is the tie-dyed fabric nowadays."

Su You looked at the patterns on it: "That's wrong..."

Mrs. Cheng wondered: "What's wrong?"

Later generations of tie-dye craftsmanship has become an art category. Many little girls like this and use it as a leisure and entertainment activity at home to refresh their body and mind.

With ordinary craftsmanship, various patterns such as clouds, stars, and chessboards can be obtained. Combined with batik techniques, one can obtain ink landscapes, flowers and birds, which are almost comparable to traditional Chinese paintings.

Now this tie-dyed fabric is just a simple blue background with small white dots, which is the so-called caviar.

However, this is something that girls like, and the most skilled people are in Zigong, not in Meishan. Su You only learned about it when he went on an intangible cultural heritage exchange inspection, and only had a rough idea.

He touched his chin and thought for a while: "Sister-in-law, this is actually the same as folding pattern steel to create various patterns you want. Let's look at it this way first..."

After saying that, I took out the pen and paper and started drawing.

"Sister-in-law, look, by folding, twisting, and tying like this, you can get a moire pattern..."

"Fold it into thin strips like this, stick it on the thick hemp rope, and then tie it tightly with the thin rope to get unique rope patterns and lines..."

"...This method is the simplest. It's just like folding and forging. First draw the lines, then intersperse them with threads, and finally tighten them. Fill the blank spaces with waste linen materials, tie them to the bamboo tube and dip dye them. This way you can

Dye into beautiful geometric shapes: this is the triangular grid tying method, this is the square lattice tying method, this is the mat pattern tying method... in short, everything can be changed without departing from its origin."

"Then comes the advanced mode: using various tying methods to obtain various patterns, and finally forming a painting."

"...For example, using different tying methods to obtain leaves and trunks respectively to form a big tree, or to obtain a banana plant..."

"... Next, we have to combine the batik process. First, we carve a hollow pattern on the leather board and apply it directly with the material to get a blue pattern. If we apply it with beeswax and then dip-dye the whole body, the beeswax part will not be colored.

, you can get the effect of white flowers on a blue background..."

"...Combining the two, and then working with tailoring, you can make the desired pattern appear in the desired place on the clothing. The beauty of application lies in your heart, and you will finally get a piece of clothing that is similar to a handicraft."

"... Batik can also be advanced in another way, which is repeated over-dying with multiple colors. For example, if I want to dye a flower, and the petals are divided into three layers, shallow on the outside and deep on the inside, I can first use a leather version with large petals to brush the wax

, dye a layer of background color, then brush the petals, and dye it again, from dark to light, you can dye multi-color and multi-layer patterns..."

Mrs. Cheng said in surprise: "This is similar to multi-color overprinting technology, right?"

Su You slapped his forehead: "Hey! I forgot that my sister-in-law is from the Cheng family. You are experts in this!"

Mrs. Cheng said happily: "That's right, the carving work is ready. I'll go to your uncle-in-law for help tomorrow!"

Three days later.

The morning fog on the pier has not yet dissipated, and the city gate has not yet been opened.

Old man Li and his two sons walked towards the city gate carrying vegetables and bags, preparing to enter the city.

He has five vegetable fields on the outskirts of the city. Relying on these five vegetable fields and hard work, his family lives a fairly comfortable life.

It's just that my son is getting older and is about to turn sixteen, so I'm a little anxious about getting a daughter-in-law.

It was still dark, and the three of them were walking forward and backward, their straw sandals clattering on the bluestone.

The youngest son in front suddenly said: "Dad, there is light at the city gate."

Old Man Li looked up, and sure enough, there was a faint light of fire coming from the mist: "The court has changed its rules again? Open the door earlier? Then you will have to get up earlier tomorrow."

After speaking, he took the opportunity to teach his two sons: "You have to be the first to sell vegetables. When people see that you are diligent and stay up all day, they will gradually get used to buying from you. Now there are twenty or thirty households in the city, and there are several

Every store always accepts our food, why? It’s because your father and I will deliver it to you every day, rain or shine. From now on, this will be your job."

The younger son was unhappy: "Dad, it's too early every time after delivering the food, and you rush me back home. I also want to visit Meishan City!"

Old Man Li scolded: "What a waste of shopping! What is there to see in the city? A foot of silk is worth two ounces of money. The less you look at, the less trouble you have! That is not the good fortune of us mud-legged people!"

The eldest son also said: "Second son, please stop letting dad worry about it! You are about to turn 16 now, and there is so much work at home. If you work hard and earn more money, I will ask my aunt to arrange a marriage for you at the end of the year!"

While talking, I came to the charity shed. It turned out that the city gate was not open, but the place was in full swing.

Many people have already eaten here, and many people are standing nearby, looking at the two big pots.

In all his decades of life, Old Man Li has never seen such a big pot.

In a pot, there is a large pot of tofu-like stuff cooking, but it looks obviously more tender.

The other big pot is strange. There is a wooden basin upside down on the pot. On top of the wooden basin, there are several stacks of fist-sized steamers, like small pillars.

A half-grown man was flipping over the steamer on the side, constantly exchanging the small steamer at the bottom with the one at the top. Only then did Old Man Li discover that there were several air holes in the bottom of the wooden basin.

As soon as this small cage is flipped, the greedy insects will come down. What is so fragrant!

A captain led several boatmen into the shed: "Hey? Meizhou City can have breakfast so early? What is this?"

Another half-year-old child wearing clean coarse clothes came over. It was Zhang Qi, the seventh brother: "So that this eldest brother will know that this is bean curd rice and this is the side dish of bream."
Chapter completed!