Exploring the Origin of Chinese Willow Weaving

Willow weaving craft

Willow twigs are soft and easy to bend, with uniform thickness and elegant color. Through novel designs, they can be woven into various simple, natural, beautiful, light and durable practical handicrafts. Its products include: wicker boxes (bags), rice baskets, vegetable baskets (round, oval), strainers, needlework baskets, kang mats, reed foil, etc. With the continuous development of the industry and the continuous innovation of products, there will be more novel, practical and beautiful willow products displayed in front of customers.

Willow weaving products are widely circulated handicrafts among the people in my country. "Weaving baskets and baskets, every family has them." This is because the raw materials for this craft are very wide. The main raw materials used for weaving baskets in the north include willow branches, tamarisk branches, mulberry branches, vitex branches, Amorpha fruticosa branches, etc., which are produced in saline-alkali land and swamps.

Weaving techniques of objects

Mostly the willow branches grown in the current year are used as raw materials, and other branches are also used. Different weaving techniques are used for the bottom, sides, edges and other parts of the objects. The bottom is round, oval and rectangular, and the bottom is made of sunflower piles, "rice" piles, "feng" piles, twisted piles, pepper eyes, triangle eyes, sieve eyes, warp and weft weaving, and twisting, looping, picking, pressing and other techniques. The sides of the objects are mostly made of warp and weft weaving, including single and double strips of weaving, rotating weaving, and pepper eyes, triangle eyes, etc., picking, pressing and reverse and forward twisting. The edges of the objects are mostly made of nesting piles, winding, braiding and other techniques. Even if the weft strips are fixed, they can also play a role in shaping and decoration. Some shorter objects use the technique of alternating sides and sides, which has a unique style. Some are also equipped with handles or painted with colors.

Weaving and assembly technology

Mainly used for furniture. It usually uses perennial or current year thick willow twigs as the main raw material, and is combined with thin twigs, and rattan and bamboo strips as binding materials. It is baked, circle-pulled to shape, and assembled by screw connection, wooden nail glue-coated concealed connection, and binding. Some are made into thin pads, which are installed on the bottom of the furniture, and most are also painted.

Warp and weft knitting technology

It is compact and smooth, and is mostly used for farm tools. It uses cords as warp and willow branches as weft, and is woven using warp and weft picking, pressing, shaping, and wrapping. Farmers use this technology to weave water buckets and apply pig blood, which can be used frequently without leaking.

Weaving Techniques

Flat Weaving

This is the main type of work for weaving flat mats. Its characteristics are that the warp and weft are interwoven and interlaced with each other. It can be picked one and pressed one, or picked two and pressed two, picked one and pressed two, picked two and pressed one, thus forming different cross-woven patterns.

Twisted Weaving

Twisted Weaving is also a type of work characterized by warp and weft weaving. First, the warp piles are arranged. The warp piles can be ropes, strips, bamboo poles, or even iron wires. Then the braided strips are crossed up and down on the warp piles and circulated. After weaving, the surface is completely covered by the weft weaving, and the warp strips are not exposed.

Strap Weaving

Strap Weaving is a traditional type of wicker weaving. The method uses hemp rope as the warp and willow twigs as the weft. The hemp ropes are interlaced and passed through the wicker twigs. After passing through once, they are tightened by buckles. Usually, the main parts of the dustpans, baskets, baskets, wicker bags, etc. seen in the folk are all woven in this way. The edges of the woven objects often need to be woven with a separate board, handle or frame to make the periphery neat and prevent it from falling apart.

Laying and weaving

Laying and weaving is one of the common types of work in traditional hand-woven weaving. This method is mostly used for the weaving of round objects. The method is to aggregate the woven materials into handles, and then use stronger bamboo strips to string these bundles together.

Wrapping and weaving

Wrapping and weaving is an auxiliary type of strip weaving and is indispensable. It is mainly used for the edges and handles of strip weaving tools. This method often uses hard materials as the core, and soft strips are wrapped around the outside of the core in a certain direction, which not only fixes it, but also has a surface decorative effect. The edge can be wrapped with a single strip or multiple strips. The single strips are arranged neatly, and the effect is simple and generous. Multiple strips can be made of materials of various colors, and patterns can be woven when wrapped.