A Trip to China

We also managed a wonderful trip to China planned long before the family weddings. I will add a few textile images from this spring time trip. There was a lot to absorb and in visiting many parts of China the landscape also offers very textile like patterns.  Here are just a few.

 This is a suit made from Salmon 'leather' from the NE part of China. I saw it  (detail below) in the Shanghai Museum textile collection. It's about 75- 100 years old. I have no idea how the skins are tanned nor how many skins you would need. I would love to find out more about it. It is amazing how they pieces the skins to get the patterns. I wish the light were better.

 I saw these tribal people visiting Beijing at the Forbidden City.  The men and the women dress differently. I do not know the tribe but would welcome a suggestion. They may be Burmese visitors.

We visited Yunnan in the mountainous southwest part of China. This is a rich area for textile lovers. There are many ethnic groups that live here and they still wear their traditional dress. Even teenagers wear a part of the dress and have cellphones!.  This was one of many markets we saw in a small town near Dali.

 Typical dress for a Bai woman The headdress under the straw hat has four areas representing the land, the water, the sky and the people. A better view is below.

 This Bai woman is removing the knots from a  cloth dyed in the  ikat tradition. Her mother was also busy making the knots on another cloth but when we came along she stopped. She had lots of quilts and bolts of materials to savor!

 A Yao woman weaving a piece to go on the edge of her jacket. They never cut their hair and that was pretty amazing. From the style she is a married woman. Girls wear hats to cover their hair and mature but unmarried women wear braids around their head. A small boy we saw had a shaved head but for a topknot near his brow.

This was in a silk factory in Suzhou. We are stretching the silk batting to make a duvet. The flawed cocoons that are damaged, are from double cocoons or are colored are used for this. It was surprisingly hard work to pull the silk evenly to cover the table.

There is so much to take in. I am still sorting out my images.