National Style Of Yao Embroidery

It is recorded in "Golden Pot Wave Ink" that Yao's clothes, heavy skirts, collars and sleeves are all embroidered with colorful lace. It can be seen that the embroidery craft has been handed down for a long time in the Yao family and has become a kind of inheritance custom in life. therefore Yao embroidery The craftsmanship is so elegant and exquisite, colorful and gorgeous, with unique national style.

Yao girls often pride themselves on being proficient in embroidery and wearing brocade and silk trimmed dresses. According to folklore, this kind of dress comes from a proud story.

It is said that the Mother Mu, the Holy Mother of Heaven, saw that King Pangu had carved the sky rough, so she took off her apron and unfolded it in the sky, thus paving the sky flat. The beautiful patterns on the skirt turned into colorful clouds in the sky, emitting colorful light and beautifying the world of Guangyu. In order to worship the Goddess of Heaven, the Yao girls show off the role of women in the creation of heaven and earth. They have inherited the techniques of drawing colorful dresses and weaving ribbons. The Yao girls have mastered the unique national craft of the Yao family from generation to generation, and have made exquisite books nation Unique clothing.

Yao embroidery mainly includes headscarf, belt, apron, hanging handkerchief bonnet , brocade belt, brocade bag.

The headband is made of green cloth, sky blue cloth and dark blue cloth. It is five feet two inches long and one foot five inches wide. Both ends of the headband should be embroidered with silk threads in colorful patterns, most of which are embroidered lock pattern, rattan pattern and ten thousand pattern pattern. The man tied a headband embroidered with lace in front of his head, which looks like a tentacle and is extremely powerful. The woman hangs the patterns at both ends of the scarf behind her head, just like wearing a colorful bun, soft and beautiful.

Belt is an important part of Yao costumes. The cloth is the same as the headband, about eight feet long, and the two ends are also embroidered with lace patterns. The beautiful patterns of the men's belt are about two to three inches long. Most of them are symmetrical plaid chain patterns, and there are also pictographic flowers and plants tied around the waist. The patterns are exposed at both ends of the waist, which shows more masculine style. The beautiful pattern of the female belt should be embroidered at least five inches, with plum blossom and kingfisher in it. Tie it around the waist, hang the beautiful patterns at both ends from the waist to the hips, and swing with the pace when walking, making it light and flowing.

The apron on the chest is a unique dress accessory of Dongshan Yao. The cloth is mostly dark blue or navy blue. It is about two feet four inches to one meter long. The skirt is connected with a brocade ribbon about three to five inches wide, and the two corners of the skirt are embroidered with flowers, colorful phoenix or floating cloud patterns, and hung with red tassels, as if the sun were flying in the sky. The woman is tied in front, which looks dignified and elegant, and has practical value. If labor requires pulling things, stack the apron up to the waist and tie it up, which can hold five to ten kilograms of goods.

The hanging handkerchief is used by women to wipe sweat and dust by pinning it on the left breast of their clothes. Use bright colored cloth, which is square in shape and about one foot two inches wide. Embroider lace around it, then embroider beautiful patterns on the opposite corners as the head of the handkerchief, and then embroider a square drawing in the middle of the hanging handkerchief. Fold it diagonally and hang it down from the collar button to the chest room. At the same time, the patterns inlaid on the edge of the skirt form a contrast between the left and the right, which shows that the patterns and colors are appropriate, beautiful and generous, It perfectly displays the natural and unrestrained heroism of the Yao girls. {page_break}

Weaving is also a unique craft product of the Yao family. Its types include lace, ribbon, homespun, kudzu hemp textiles, etc.

The weaving tools are wooden looms. The refined weaving tools are very simple. Only one piece of bamboo, about eight inches to one foot long, can be sharpened and scraped at both ends.

For the knitting of lace and brocade bag, the cotton yarn is dyed into colored thread first, and then the brocade yarn is tied on the bench. After the width is suitable, the knitting can be done by drawing the warp yarn and carving out the weaving head. The length of lace varies from long to short, from wide to narrow, depending on the use. The length is generally two to three meters, and the width is one to four inches. Some are as narrow as two points, while others are six inches wide. The woven patterns include phoenix presenting auspiciousness, phoenix cooing, mandarin duck playing in the water, peacock opening its screen, fish jumping from the dragon gate, frog diving, eight legged crab, dragonfly and exotic flowers and plants. This kind of woven fabric is mainly used to sew clothes, scarves, belt trims and aprons. Some are also used to connect quilt covers or sew brocade bags. No matter what use it is, it will add a touch of brilliance to the objects.

The brocade belt is one of the most important costumes for Yao women, and its craftsmanship is the most exquisite. It is said that a woman in the Yao family went up the mountain to cut firewood. When she saw a poisonous snake blocking the way, she was not afraid to catch it and strangle it. She peeled its skin and tied it to her legs. When the poisonous snake saw it in the mountains, it ran away. So she used brocade threads to weave colorful ribbons, which looked like snake skin, to tie skirts, leggings and sandals. From then on, no poisonous snake blocked the way. Since then, weaving brocade belts has become the custom of the Yao family.

In addition to weaving headbands and large cloth belts embroidered with patterns at both ends, women of the Yao family also have the custom of weaving colorful ribbons with brocade threads and silk gauze. As long as the girl is 11 or 12 years old, the mother will dye the yarn into color first to teach the girl how to weave ribbons. When the girl is 15 or 16 years old, she can skillfully weave high-quality ribbons.

The brocade belt of the Yao family is less than three minutes wide and about three feet long. It is mostly used for "cloth shoes", cigarette bags and brocade bags. The medium size is about five minutes wide and five feet long. It is mostly used as a gift for children to tie waist skirts. The large ones are up to two inches wide and six feet long. Most of them are used by young women as aprons to tie their heads. Some beautiful brocade ribbons woven by young women are kept as gifts for their lovers. Brocade belt is an indispensable dress and gift for a woman when she is a bride.

The brocade belt is widely used in the life of the Yao family. Therefore, every year in slack farming and cold winter, the girls of the Yao family will knit brocade belts together in groups. They bought colorful silk thread, tied the warp of the belt on the long wooden bench, picked up the thread ends of the patterns they wanted to weave, put on the shuttle, and then carefully knitted them. On both sides of the belt, there should be two red threads with similar colors as the edges. In the middle, in addition to the swastika, four stars and six plums, there should also be lotus, plum, stars, roses and other patterns. The color is mainly rich red, which means hot mood, red like fire. Both sides are also woven with deformed bird patterns, and decorated with silver beads and bubbles. At the end of the belt, there are three strands of brocade whiskers, covered with a crystal bead chain, and tied around the waist. The front looks like a dragon winding around the waist, and the back looks like a phoenix swinging its tail. The two ends of the belt are tied in a loose knot at the back, and the brocade whiskers hang down to the hips, just like the flowers blossom and tie together forever. Therefore, the flower belt is a perennial work of the Yao girls, preparing for hard work, and also contains endless happiness and happiness of youth.

Gema textile is household linen of Yao family. It is too cold to plant cotton in Yaoshan. The ancestors of the Yao family picked up the kudzu hemp on the mountain, and the process of weaving linen for household use has been passed down from generation to generation, and has become a habit of life. So every summer, after planting the fields, the younger generation and women of the Yao family would go up the mountain to collect the kudzu vines, soak them in water after returning home, remove their skin and bones, wash their skin, twist the white kudzu hemp into fine threads, weave them into kudzu hemp cloth with a wooden machine, and then sew them into clothes, or use them to make mosquito nets and sacks. The linen cloth is hard and wear-resistant. It can be used to hang mosquito nets for ten or twenty years. It can be used to load rice or other crops in sacks and baskets. It is safe and reliable, not easy to splash, and is more suitable for loading goods in mountainous areas. In the history of Yaoshan Shoulder Transport, gunny bags have played an unforgettable role.