Visitors choose rich fish ornaments. Photo by Zhao Yuguo
(New Year to the grassroots) Shandong Liaocheng rope knot craftsmen weave fiery red Chinese knots for 20 years "knot" to get rich "fruit"
China News Network Liaocheng February 10 Title: Shandong Liaocheng Rope Knot Craftsmen Weave Fiery Red Chinese Knots for 20 Years "Knot" to Get Rich "Fruit"
Author Sun Tingting Liu Mingming
A red rope is folded in half, the left hand is pressed and held firmly, the right hand is wound in the second order, and then the end of the thread is threaded into the coil and tightened, and an auspicious knot is formed in the hands of Li Jianxia, the inheritor of the "Li's Chinese Knot Making Technique". Li Jianxia, a former laid-off female worker, used a string of fiery Chinese knots to string together her entrepreneurial path with more than 300 sisters, so that a piece of festive knot works entered thousands of households in China.
On February 10, at Li Jianxia's studio in Chiping District, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, the reporter saw that various rope knot handicrafts such as the auspicious ruyi knot of big red, the bright peacock opening screen knot, and the "cute" rich fish were "paved" on four walls, and the studio was decorated with "red and fiery". Rope knot workers sit in it, skillfully weaving ornaments such as "Ruyi Knot", "Fu Zi Knot" and "Reunion Knot".
In the processing workshop, workers weave Chinese knot jewelry. Photo by Zhao Yuguo
Li Jianxia told reporters that in 2003, after she was laid off from the towel factory, she tried a lot of work in various places, and accidentally saw the Chinese knot buttons on her clothes and thought of making Chinese knot handicrafts. "The input cost of this handicraft is not high, it can be done at home, and the use of Chinese knots is increasing, and it should be processed without worrying about sales." Li Jianxia, who is nearly 40 years old, has successively visited Linyi, Heze, Weihai, Qingdao, Jinan, Yiwu and other places to study hand-weaving skills and explore all the way.
"At the beginning, the technique was not skilled, and I could only do two or three hundred a day, but many of them could not meet the requirements and had to be dismantled and redone." Li Jianxia said she also tried to sell the chinese knots in the wholesale market, but the sales were not good.
Li Jianxia displays Chinese knot ornaments. Photo by Zhao Yuguo
The combination of knot handicrafts with intangible cultural heritage products such as gourds and peach wood allowed Li Jianxia to find new ideas. "The weaving method of the Chinese knot is the 'root', and the art of knotting is inseparable from its origin. If we want to make China unique, the most important thing is innovation. Li Jianxia casually picked up a gourd pendant and told reporters that like the Chinese knot on the small gourd, it belongs to the more commonly used type, which can sell tens of millions of pieces a year.
The development of Chinese knots with other industries has broken the dependence of Chinese knot sales on the holiday holiday, and Li Jianxia has received a steady stream of orders. "We can supply tens of millions of Chinese knot parts for the gourd painting and peach wood carving industries in Liaocheng Dongchangfu District, Tai'an Feicheng and other places every year."
In the past 20 years, Li Jianxia has founded a personal company, from a single Chinese knot processing, to the current knot art products, rope weaving handicrafts, high-grade wine packaging, fabric products, jewelry, craft gourd processing six series of products, more than 300 varieties, sold to more than 10 provinces and cities in China, some products exported to South Korea, the United States.
After the expansion of the company's scale and the improvement of efficiency, Li Jianxia actively absorbed laid-off workers, idle rural laborers, and left-behind women to help poor women find local employment nearby. Up to now, there are more than 300 women employed at home in Li Jianxia Company, with a monthly income of more than 700 yuan (RMB, the same below), which has built a platform for the surrounding people in need to increase employment and income. They take red threads and other materials, weave various Chinese knots at home, earn money and take care of their families.
In addition, Li Jianxia also combined the "village-enterprise docking" action with the actual situation of the industry and the development needs of women, used the positions of women's homes and women's and children's homes to carry out training, organized rural women to send technology to the door with the village as a unit, and adopted a combination of centralized teaching and household guidance to achieve home entrepreneurship and income. At present, the company has formed a "women's federation + demonstration point + weaving household" entrepreneurial employment model.
"In the next step, the company intends to develop new products in China that are mainly practical and help more sisters get rich." Li Jianxia said that the Chinese knot is not only a holiday ornament, but also a daily necessity, and she wants to let the Chinese knot from life slowly return to life. "I have always had a dream in my heart to combine Chinese knot art with clothing design to create practical and beautiful Chinese knot-themed clothes, hoping to achieve it." (End)
Source: China News Network