Four looms · four seasons
Each craft is a piece of China preserved by time.
We visited Suzhou, Zhenhu, Foshan, and Hangzhou and brought them back for our children.
Song brocade Adding flowers to brocade
Song brocade originated in Suzhou during the Song Dynasty, characterized by its "warp-faced patterning and weft-defined colors." Weaving one inch of Song brocade requires over three thousand jacquard operations, and an old-fashioned hand loom could only produce about two inches a day.
Suzhou embroidery A touch of spring.
The most exquisite form of Su embroidery is "double-sided embroidery" – a single piece of thin silk with different designs on each side, yet no visible stitches. A single strand of silk can be split into 64 thinner strands, finer than a human hair.
Xiangyunsha Sun-drenched and moon-bathed
Gambiered Canton gauze is known as "soft gold." It's repeatedly dyed and sun-dried with gambier juice, and finally treated with unique river mud from the Pearl River Delta to achieve its black and lustrous texture. It can only be sun-dried in the summer.
Silk gown Joro cool and breathable
Hangluo, one of China's four famous types of silk gauze, was already a tribute item during the Tang Dynasty. Its ancient weaving technique, using three-shuttle-one-twist and five-shuttle-one-twist leno weaves, creates even eyelets, making it light and breathable. A single silk gauze garment weighs only two liang (approximately 100 grams).
