Yue Reading Weekly | Wenxin - Plant Dyeing

After her birthday, my friend said that she wanted to change a little new when she entered middle age. On Sunday, in addition to entering public places, epidemic prevention personnel have to check the green code, and other times, she will turn off her mobile phone, quit group chats, do not shop online, and so on.

Everyone laughed at his whimsy: in these years and months, everyone left their mobile phones, just like fish left water, seedlings left the soil, can they still live? Besides, without the mobile phone, you are not too empty to panic on this day?

You know, before, on Sundays, she was sending two babies to various training courses in the storm position.

A few months later, I saw the results of a small batch of her "shutdown days" - it turned out that she revisited the old movie "Ancient Capital" during this time, and was moved by the pictures of plant dyeing in it, and became fascinated by dyeing cloth. Just two years ago, her family rented a log cabin built by the villagers in the suburbs, surrounded by sun-drenched mountains, and there was a yard and a terrace outside the wooden house, so she searched for a batch of white cloth and white mulberry silk fabrics from the Internet. On Sunday, she drove her two children to the suburban mountains, where she picked the leaves, flowers, fruits and bark of the plants, washed the plants, sorted them into categories, crushed them with a juicer, boiled them, filtered out impurities with a cloth, and left "paint" to dye the cloth.

The pattern on the dyeing tape is not complicated. You can first use a wax knife to dip the melted wax, use the knife to replace the pen, first draw the pattern on the cloth, wait for the wax to dry through to form a stain-proof layer, and then immerse it in the dyeing tank, dye the color, shake open the cloth, and make full contact with the air for oxidation treatment. If it is repeated, after the dye fully penetrates into the texture of each cotton, hemp and silk, wash it with water, put it into a hot water pot to boil off the wax layer, and where the anti-dye layer covers, it will reveal a white pattern with a little ice crack, and then blow dry on the clothesline.

She said that the plant dye is quite sensitive, and if it is placed in the sun, it will fade quickly, so it needs to be dried in the shade. The dried clothes are stored in the dark for a week, which is the secret of making their color relatively durable. After that, of course, every time you wear it, every time you wash it, there is a subtle transformation of color, because, unlike chemical dyeing, plant dyeing is breathing and can be tweaked.

The whole dyeing process is to play with the children. She said to us with deep feelings, if we stare at the mobile phone all day, think about watching small videos and playing games every day, away from nature, how can children think of dyeing gray-black scarves or trench coats, using the leaves of the southern candle; dyeing yellow cloth hats or skirts, not only golden marigolds, but also the fruits of gardenias? Once upon a time, children had only seen the thick white, fragrant gardenia, which would pay attention to the gardenia, which would produce olive-like fruit, and in autumn, the fruit would turn orange or orange-red, and when it was mashed and soaked, it could get a bright yellow dye. Children never knew that the slippery fungus, known as "falling sunflower", would blossom and bear fruit, and the ripe sunflower seeds were red, and as the autumn became deeper, it slowly turned into a dark red color that was almost black. When you pinch the fruit, you will burst out a rouge-like juice, which can dye skirts, blouses, and cloth bags into a translucent, pleasant red.

One thing that makes plant dyeing different is that the same raw materials and processes, each dyeing color has a subtle difference. The wormwood in the field that emits a strong medicinal fragrance is dyed greener if it is picked during the Dragon Boat Festival; if it is picked after the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is dyed yellow; the old leaves of the loquat tree are dyed with dark brown powder, and the young leaves are dyed with a delicate pink. When mashing Guanyin grass and using dyes leached from well water, tap water, mountain spring water, etc., there may be different variations such as pink, purple red, and brownish red, because the minerals in the water are different from the pH. These changes not only contain the rhythm of the transformation of the twenty-four solar terms, contain the soft and vigorous spring meaning, and the metallic sonorous autumn atmosphere, but also contain the youth and old age of the plant.

Plant dyeing contains a variety of knowledge, including biology, chemistry, art, poetry and humanities, she leads children to learn this knowledge. "Kneading the blue shirt and apricot yellow skirt" refers to plant dyeing. The soft colors naturally sprinkle on the soft cotton and linen cloth and sprinkle on the translucent mulberry silk, as if they contain the aroma of the sun and the sun-dried haystacks, as well as the femininity and sweetness of the moon and dewdrops. The presentation of these natural beauties makes adults and children who are often in a state of tension feel the relaxed feeling of nature's breeze.

In the cabin, she also takes the children to play "plant knocking and dyeing", that is, on the plant dyeing scarves, handkerchiefs or tablecloths that have been dyed and dried, the leaves and flowers of the plants she has picked up are "expanded". The method is not complicated, as long as the plant is flat on the cotton cloth, covered with a thick paper towel, with a small mallet or a pebble gently tapped the plant, the sap of flowers, fern leaves, climbing vine leaves will penetrate into the fabric texture, forming a natural color and shape. Uncover the paper towel, gently remove the soft and tight plants, let it sit, wait for the pigment to oxidize in the air, wash the cotton cloth with cold water, and dry it.

From spring to autumn, those beautiful flowers or stretched buds and leaves, through the method of plant rubbing, leave a warm picture of meeting the eyes and hands of children. They carry light and shadow, color, and subtle plant scents until the long and gloomy winter, forming a spiritual world where children thrive. She said that putting down the day's mobile phone, there is nothing to lose, on the contrary, this action will release her and her children from the small home to the wilderness, so that they can fully open the five senses of sight, hearing, touching, smelling, and taste, to experience the changes of nature, the comfort of the earth, the gift of the seasons, which also makes her physically and mentally stretched, patient, and spare to cultivate children who are flexible and bright enough in the spiritual world, so that they can get enough energy to cope with a series of challenges in growth.

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