"Tonight I'm going to be sleepy (I can't sleep tonight)!" On the morning of the 7th, Li Meimei, a 70-year-old Hengyuan Xiang velvet weaver, got busy, counting the velvet flowers shipped from all over the world while preparing for the final assembly of the Beijing Winter Olympics award bouquet.
A crochet needle, a ball of velvet thread, in a pair of clever hands of Li Mei, can weave a beautiful and realistic velvet flower. Li Meimei is the shanghai municipal inheritor of the "Haipai velvet knotting technique", and after retirement, she began to study the velvet crochet and has been around for 20 years. Today, this traditional skill of Shanghai school will be displayed in front of the world in the highlights of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and become a bouquet in the hands of athletes on the podium - the flower of rongyao.
Li Mei (middle) got busy early in the morning
"Almost thought there was no hope"
Red roses, pink moon seasons, white bell orchids and hydrangeas, yellow laurel and osmanthus flowers, green olives, 7 kinds of velvet flowers constitute the award bouquet of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the bow ribbon on the bouquet handle is printed with the words "BEIJING 2022". Compared with flowers, the characteristics of velvet flowers that never wither, low-carbon and environmental protection reflect the concept of "Green Olympics" and also add harmony and warmth to the ice and snow arena.
A seemingly simple bouquet of velvet flowers condenses the painstaking efforts of Li Meimei and the entire Winter Olympic bouquet production team. In October 2021, when Li Meimei learned that the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee had determined the velvet flower plan, the big stone hanging in her heart fell to the ground. "That was the moment when my dream came true. The design plan had come and gone for more than 4 months, and I almost thought there was no hope. ”
The Beijing Winter Olympics Bouquet consists of 7 kinds of velvet flowers
At the time of the initial design, the team took into account that the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics was in the Lunar New Year, and referred to the award bouquet of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, using red roses with green leaves of velvet flowers, the color is very festive, but the feedback is not ideal.
Although the bouquets of the awards of the previous Olympic Games have different flower materials, they all reflect the Olympic spirit and the cultural characteristics of the host country and the host city. After an in-depth and meticulous study, the Olympic velvet bouquet designed by Li Mei is now fresh and natural, which is in line with the main color of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and expresses multiple flower languages, "for example, the moon season symbolizes tenacity, and it is the city flower of Beijing, reflecting the cultural inheritance of the 'City of The Two Olympics'; the laurel symbolizes victory, the osmanthus symbolizes the harvest, and the two flowers are deeply loved by Shanghai citizens and have Shanghai elements." ”
For Li Meimei, these flowers are usually woven, and in order to achieve the "Olympic standard", she began to be ingenious, giving herself "difficulty", "Most of the crochets used on the market now are thick lines, which are fast and fast, but the final effect is relatively rough." Slow work can only produce fine work, so I chose thin lines. Although it takes more time and effort to use a thin line, the bouquet of flowers hooked out is more delicate and more realistic, which I think is still worth it. ”
The Olympic bouquet has strict standards, and the shaped and bundled bouquet is 34 cm high, 24 cm in diameter at the chest, and the volume is just in the awards tray. The combination of the size of the flowers is also a beautiful beauty that has been tried in various ways, which is both delicate and expressive. In order to make the velvet flower shape structured, Li Mei also added lead wire shaping to the flower weaving.
Every Olympic bouquet has exacting standards
Now this Olympic velvet bouquet is held in the hand, which looks at the fake and real from a distance, and the petals and leaves are clearly veined up close, which is a beautiful work of art.
"My phone is on 24 hours"
Finalizing the design is the first hurdle, and production is another hurdle. The number of Olympic bouquets is large and the quality requirements are high.
The Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games awards shared 1251 bouquets, with a total of 16731 flowers. Each flower has leaves and flowers, all of which are handmade. Behind the uniqueness is a lot of manpower and time.
Li Meimei told reporters, "It takes 20 minutes to knot a rose petal, a rose is composed of ten petals, plus 3 leaves and flower stems, only one rose, it takes at least 5 hours for a knottist." And the flowers in this bouquet are different, resulting in different techniques, so it takes up to 35 hours to complete this exquisite bouquet, and it takes nearly 50,000 hours to make all the bouquets. ”
Echoes. With the support of the All-China Women's Federation and other organizations, Hengyuanxiang Group mobilized the knotting societies in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces and cities to participate in the bouquet project, and Li Meili was responsible for the training, quality control and final assembly of the bouquet.
More than 10,000 flowers must be passed through the hands of Li Mei to ensure that there are no flaws.
For Li Meimei, the solution of breaking it into pieces is very scientific, but it is more laborious than making it herself. She had to design the knitting drawings of the flowers for the local weaving societies; she also had to teach and unify the craftsmanship and techniques of everyone. Because of the impact of the epidemic, she could not go to the field for on-site training, and could only do it through recording videos and online classes.
At the beginning of the production in late October, Li Mei asked some samples from all over the world to send in, find problems in time, modify and then send back samples. During that time, the daily logistics of parcels was very frequent, and the small studio became a warehouse. "Now my mobile phone is turned on 24 hours a day, which is convenient to contact me in time."
In order to ensure the final consistency of the bouquet and to improve the efficiency of production, each knitting community is only responsible for making 1-2 kinds of flower materials, which are summarized and assembled by Hengyuanxiang Group after completion. From quality inspection, pruning of flowers and branches to final assembly, LiMei is hands-on. She is a perfectionist with regard to the velvet flower works, "The flowers that were summarized at the beginning were more or less problematic, so I took them home and took them apart and re-crocheted them." ”
After quality inspection, the final assembly is also a big project. The sum of the flower materials is different in length, And Li Mei also has her own little tricks, "At the beginning, I used pliers to trim the flower branches, which was very time-consuming and labor-intensive, and then I applied for a cutting machine from the company, which greatly improved the work efficiency." I did not waste the cut branches, the original whole bouquet is actually thin to hold, I will prune the flower branches and then fill the handle, so that the athletes hold the bouquet feel better, but also greatly save the material. ”
"No flowers I can't make up"
More than 100 years ago, the velvet knotting technology from Europe into China's coastal cities, Chinese craftsmen combined the traditional oriental knot rope technique with the velvet knotting technique, greatly enriched the velvet knotting stitching, patterns, carriers and application occasions, forming a haipai velvet knotting technology, velvet floriculture is one of them. More than 100 years later, the Beijing Winter Olympics became a stage for the display of Haipai velvet thread weaving skills.
With only a week left until the final delivery date on January 14, there are still 400 bouquets of flowers to assemble, and volunteers from Hengyuanxiang Group have joined in to help sort out the flowers.
Volunteers participate in the sorting of the flowers.
Starting at 8 o'clock every morning until the evening, I can only assemble 60 bunches of velvet thread flowers a day. "We're going to start working in a closed way now, sleeping a little tired, waking up and continuing to work, and sprinting hard for the last week." Li Meimei said that this is to put pressure on herself, "a day early, a good day, as early as possible, there are errors can be remedied." ”
Since entering Hengyuanxiang Group in 1994, the beautiful velvet flower has made her glow with the "second spring" of her profession. Before retiring, Li Meimei worked as an editor for the group magazine, and out of interest for enthusiasts, she carried out fleece knitting after retirement. When talking about the difference between the two, Li Meimei believes, "To do a magazine is to interview everywhere and deal with people. But the velvet knotted needs you to calm down and be able to sit still. ”
Over the past 20 years, Li Mei has continuously studied and studied with one needle and one thread, designed the shape and structure of flowers, continuously woven artistic works, and used the right finger of crochet needle for many years to grind out the cocoon. "I made velvet flowers almost from scratch, and I thought, either don't do it, do it and do it best." Sometimes when making up flowers of poor quality, Li Meimei will be sad in her heart, but she never gives up and will spend a lot of time to revise.
Making an Olympic velvet bouquet, but a wish to inspire beauty.
Having woven the city flowers of cities across the country and the national flowers of many countries, Li Meimei proudly said: "There is no flower that I can't make, unless it is a flower I haven't seen." ”
In the 2018 Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition held in Egypt, the Egyptian national flower water lily woven with velvet thread became a "hot model" for the guests to wear. The 2020 Shanghai Expo and the 2021 Shanghai Flower Expo will make the beautiful woven bell orchid velvet thread flowers fall in love with the viewers. Can make the velvet flower famous at home and abroad, so that the "Haipai velvet weaving technique" becomes a banner, li beautiful but very low-key, "how much sweat you have shed, how much harvest." ”
Immersed in the art of velvet weaving, Li Mei has no time to take care of the big and small affairs of the family. Last year, her grandson took the college entrance examination, and she didn't have time to care. "My family was very supportive and happy for me, saying that I was doing a great thing, and my grandson was proud of me as a grandmother." Some time ago, Li's beautiful brother was seriously ill and hospitalized, and occasionally had time to go to comfort, and she also carried the handmade of the Olympic bouquet bow.
"I'm older and there's always a day to leave this post, and that's probably the last project I'll do. Being able to make Heng yuanxiang's velvet flower bloom at the Olympic Games, I feel that I have no regrets in this life. Looking at the Olympic bouquet in her hand, Li Mei's eyes were full of love.
Grandma Li (left) is the best partner for Li Mei to weave velvet flowers.
Behind the warm Olympic bouquet is a heart-warming story. Like Li Mei, all the producers involved weave their love densely into the velvet flower.
In Yangpu District, the Craftsman Mother Workshop has been working for more than 2 months to make 2,400 roses. In order to catch up with the progress, about 150 aunts and mothers in the district participated. More than 130 people are responsible for "working from home" every day, weaving rose parts. The rest are responsible for assembling flowers at the Yangpu District Women and Children's Activity Center. In this process, they divide their work and cooperate, perform their respective duties, and "assembly line" operations. The oldest of them, Mou Guoying, is 80 years old this year.
Gu Honglei, secretary of the Party Committee of Hengyuanxiang Group, also revealed the behind-the-scenes story to reporters, the reason why the weaving bouquet of the Olympic Games can get a hundred responses from weaving communities around the world, thanks to the "Hengyuanxiang Action" launched by Hengyuanxiang in 2005, mobilizing the whole society to knit love sweaters for special children, and has so far woven a total of 1.23 million love sweaters. Among these weavers, there are also people with disabilities, who participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics in a special way.