West Lake silk umbrella

West Lake silk umbrella

West Lake silk umbrella is one of Hangzhou's famous speciality.With bamboo umbrella stand and silk face, the West Lake silk umbrellas are light with artistic designs and easy to carry, thus reputed as "Flowers of the West Lake". Usually printed, dyed, or embroidered, the umbrellas are painted with the Ten Views of the West Lake or flowers, which are beautiful in shape, particular in material choosing, and exquisite in design.

Moreover, the story of "Sending Umbrella by the Lakeside" in The White Snake popular among the Chinese further lends a legendary color to the West Lake silk umbrellas. Nowadays, Umbrella is a symbol of romance in Hangzhou, Inspired by the beautiful and brave lady White Snack, nowadays some youngsters still use umbrellas to express their adoration.

Chinese Blue Calico in Wuzhen

Chinese Blue Calico from Zhejiang Wuzhen

Chinese Blue Calico is very famous in the world.It is the Chinese traditional folk arts and crafts with thousand years of history of printing and dyeing.Its deep blue color, comfortable, natural feel, and charming traditional patterns have kept the Chinese Blue Calico popular, and It is famous for its handmade printing and dying process,concise and simple desigh and bright and concordant coloreven among the urban sophisticates of modern China.

Wuzhen (乌镇) is a scenic town, part of Tongxiang, in northern Zhejiang Province, China.It's one of the orginal place of Blue Calico.It is the great place to travel during this season.

Textile - Bhutan

Bhutanese woman is weaving

Textile art plays an important role in Bhutanese life. These weavings are produced using a technique called supplementary weft that involves inserting small pieces of colored thread among the warp threads by hand. This allows very intricate designs, but leaves the back side of the fabric with an unfinished look. Due to their labor intensive nature these hand loomed fabrics are very expensive, especially when done in silk or cotton, because of the number of weft threads per inch.

Uzbekistan Fabric

Uzbekistan Fabric

This contemporary suzani textile is handwoven and hand-embroidered by women incorporating designs traditionally used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Silk Road cites and towns of Uzbekistan. By the early 20th century the art of natural dying had largely fallen by the wayside in places like Samarqand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and Shahrisabz. However, with independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 there has been a return of some of the traditional commerce of the region. One of the happy outcomes is the rediscovery of the use of natural dyes and a renascent production of suzanis, this traditional needlework of the women of the Silk Road.

The silk used in the embroidery of these pieces is colored with natural dyes from various plants and insects. The reds come from madder and cochineal; the blues come from indigo; the yellow from a variety of local plants; the black from pomegranate, and so forth. The brilliance of the dyes, along with their subtle variations, results in an appearance unmatched by the flat regularity of modern chemical dyes.

The ground fabric is handwoven with a silk warp and cotton weft. The silk warp gives the ground fabric a “hand” or touch that is superior to that of a simple cotton fabric. The silk adds a subtle visual richness to the surface. Compare it to the machine made 100% cotton backing, which, while a very nice quality material, does not have the same look or feel.

The fabric has been woven on a narrow loom by hand, resulting in a piece of cloth typically about 17-20” wide. The strips are then tacked together to make the larger piece of cloth. Then a master draws the design on the fabric with a pen. The pieces are then taken apart and each is embroidered separately by hand. When the pieces are rejoined the design will never match exactly at the seams and changes in color will also be noticeable. These slight variations were not traditionally considered to be a defect. Rather, they add some interest and give each piece its own character. This is how these items have always been made, and the variations do little to detract from the color, beauty, and rhythm of the designs. Each piece is also a slightly different size, slightly different color, and even if made by the same artisan, never exactly the same design.

Dimensions: 39" x 54"

China ancient cotton ginning machine

This is cotton ginning machine used in Qing Dynasty.Found in Yunnan province of China.It is made of wooden, measured 78cm long, 61.5cm high，56cm wide. The cotton ginning machine was made by the Jino ethnic minority. They use this machine to separate cottonceed from cotton. There are two hardwood sticks that connected with crooked handle. By rocking the the handle and putting the cotton through the two sticks, the cottonceed would be separated from the cotton.