Invincible Glory|Strategy of Yanxi Palace

The beautiful costumes of

Story of Yanxi Palace The popular costume drama "Story of Yanxi Palace" made the Nanjing Ronghua , known as the palace flower, Xihua , occupy the peak of "beauty to the end".

​​Copper wire is the bone, silk is the meat, and the silk is in the buckle, with a charm for thousands of years.


​​The beauty of flowers is fleeting. The ancients said: "There are flowers that can be folded straight and must be folded, don't wait until there are no flowers to break the branches." So there is - intangible cultural heritage velvet flower .


Tang Dynasty great poet Li Bai once wrote such a poem: "Mountain flowers in a bun (jì), dianthus embroidered Luo Yi." It is velvet flowers. In

​​"Strategy of Yanxi Palace", most of the women in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty wore "little heads". The "little two heads" need to be combed out of their own hair, so they cannot wear heavier gold and silver jewelry, and can only wear velvet flowers on them. The costumes in

​​"Story of Yanxi Palace" are very close to historical facts. The other characters in the play are the same, they are all standard appearances with two heads and velvet flowers. How did the velvet come about? There is a saying: Tang Dynasty There was a concubine who had a scar on her forehead and needed to wear flowers to cover her ugliness. It is good to have real flowers in summer, but it would be troublesome in winter. Smart artists began to use colorful silk, silk and other materials to make flowers, which are velvet flowers.


​​Although this legend is not known to be true, the women of the Tang Dynasty really liked beautiful flowers very much. Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote such a poem: "Mountain flowers are placed in treasure buns, and dianthus is embroidered in Luo Yi." The folded flowers are inserted in the hair, and the fresh flowers bring out the agile beauty of the girl.


The production process of velvet flower


Preparation process

1, cooking silk, the raw material of velvet flower craft is very simple, namely silk. After the silk is purchased, the craftsman will soak it in cold water for a day. Then cook with alkaline water , so as to ensure the toughness of the silk, the silk after cooking is called "cooked velvet".


2, dyeing, dye the cooked velvet with dye! The color should be pure! After dyeing, put it on a bamboo pole to dry! It needs to be turned and straightened.


3, burning wire, the wire here refers to the raw material - copper wire. Brass wire needs to be simmered with charcoal until it is annealed and softened. The picture comes from @Lu Yue Xiaohongshu 102630879


​​The production process

1, rolling velvet, arrange the cooked velvet of various colors and fix it on a wooden utensil as needed. Then use a brush to level the cooked velvet, and cover it with a hot towel if necessary. Take a thin copper wire and fold it in half, clamp the velvet on both sides, twist a section of the copper wire into a spiral shape, then use scissors to cut off an appropriate amount of cooked velvet, and hold the two ends of the copper wire with your hands and twist repeatedly until Form a complete "fleece". The velvet strip is the most basic component in the velvet production process, and it is also the main material.


2, make a point and use scissors to process the velvet! Make the cylindrical pile into the required obtuse angle, acute angle, hemisphere, semicircle, ellipse, etc. If necessary, the fleece strips are pressed into a flat shape with a pressing tool.


3, pass flowers, use tweezers to combine the sharpened velvet strips to configure three-dimensional velvet flower products. This is also the most exciting step in the velvet flower production process, which can well reflect the maker's thoughts and imagination.


4, sticky flower, stick the prepared three-dimensional velvet flower with beads, vellum , spring, rapeseed and other materials, making the velvet flower products more lifelike and vivid.



​​Although the popularity of film and television dramas has made velvet flowers loved by many people, this skill is in danger of being lost.

​​On the one hand, with Yunjin production sharplyLower, it is difficult to find the leftovers for the production of velvet flowers. Now we have to go to Suzhou to buy the silk used for Suzhou embroidery as the raw material.

​​On the other hand, the production process of velvet flowers is complicated, time-consuming, and the income is slow. The non-genetic inheritors face the problem of survival. Even if young people are interested in making velvet flowers, they will give up this ideal because of the pressure of survival. In order to inherit this skill, Master Zhao Shuxian has participated in the production of headdresses in many film and television dramas. The velvet headdress in the Story of Yanxi Palace has set off a wave of intangible cultural heritage velvet flowers, making this traditional craft more popular. Many people are familiar with it. And he has received many apprentices to inherit this skill.

​​velvet flower is undefeated, and the spring breeze is always here.