In 1930s and 1940s, the production of velvet flowers in Nanjing was dominated by family workshops. The velvet production industry is mainly distributed on the east and west sides of the south gate of the city, mainly concentrated in the copper workshop and the upper pontoon bridge in Maxiang. There are about 40 households in the city, and there are three famous businessmen in Maxiang: Ke Hengtai, Zhang Yitai and Ma Rongxing.
Among them, Wu Changquan, who was born in a velvet family and engaged in velvet crafts for six generations, was Zhang Yitai's earliest apprentice. Zhou Jiafeng, a famous senior suede artist, came to Nanjing from the countryside (dongjiacun, Longdu Town, Jiangning County) at the age of 12, and also studied under Wu Changquan of Zhang Yitai. At the same time, Zhou Jiafeng's famous velvet artist is Wang Jiatai of Yangzhou velvet family.
In 2006, Nanjing velvet flower was listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage, and Nanjing Folk Museum was the responsible unit for the protection of this project. 20 10 at the second international folk art organization world youth conference held in Nanjing, Nanjing velvet flower won the honorary award of the organizing Committee, which is the most beautiful China handicraft in the eyes of the world youth.
Technological characteristics of Nanjing velvet flower
The production of velvet flowers requires nearly ten processes, such as dyeing, soft copper wire, cross-stitch, and dot-stitch. It will take Zhao at least two or three days to make a velvet flower with a diameter of about ten centimeters, not including the preparatory work such as purchasing silk.
Red, pink, yellow and green velvet is put on the steel wire under Zhao's pliers and bent into various shapes of velvet products, such as flowers, persimmons, ingots, ruyi, rockhopper, dragon boat, red-crowned crane and evergreen, which are lifelike.