Why are bamboos used?
It is actually because of the resiliency and light weight of this tall grass that it is widely used as a material for making furnishings, armors, and musical instruments. In fact, bamboos are also utilized in the production and manufacture of daily and industrial wares.
Vases
The clan of the Kagas hired a huge number of craftsmen and gave them relatively high wages for beautifully manufacturing ladles and flower vases for flower arrangements and tea ceremonies.
After the war, the processes and manufacture of woven bamboos were stopped and replaced with the manufacture of cheap ones that were only made of plastic. But still, the public always wanted something that was natural and made with great quality. This was probably why they always came back to the use and high demand of woven bamboo products. In only a short span of time, woven bamboo items regained its popularity.
Weaving techniques
There were already many techniques for weaving back then. They were merely developed and enhanced by the old-fashioned and modern craftsmen so that they could come up with products that had beautiful finishes and made from very elaborate techniques.
From China
The country of China is known for its abundance in bamboo resources. In fact, this particular country is known for its long history of utilizing bamboos and planting them. Moreover, their ancestors actually started out trying to figure everything they could with bamboo for more than seven thousand years ago.
Some particular places in China were actually quite popular for the production of some distinctive woven bamboo products, such as Hubei provinces, Shengxian, Dongyang, Jiang’an of Sichuan province, Hunan, and Anji of the Zhejian province.
Based on the records found in the Republic of China which date back to the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese place that was richest in bamboos and its products was Rui’an County. Since there were lots of bamboos, the number of craftsmen in this particular area also greatly increased. Moreover, bamboo craftsmen in the Fujian province and Quanzhou were even referred to as technicians.
Inheriting the craft
The craft and skill of weaving bamboos are now passed on from the master to the apprentice during the process of weaving or fixing the damages on the products. This way, the skill can be inherited from a particular generation to another generation.
According to some apprentices, it took them three years before they finally and completely learned the craft of weaving bamboo. But of course, those who are brilliant will not need that long time and still be independent in their own field of producing woven bamboo products.
The process
The bamboo craftsman cuts the bamboo into very thin strips that are made of various sizes. Only one section of a bamboo should be cut and then it should be split in lots of vertical halves. The joints of the bamboos should be smoothened and then the halves should be cleaved into further strips.
After this is accomplished, the green scarfskin and the yellow surface found inside should be removed and then cleaved into thinner strips.
What is spinning?
Spinning is actually a process that is known for the transformation of cotton fiber into a thread or yarn. The fibers of the cotton will undergo a lot of stages to prepare them for the spinning process. Before the cotton undergoes the spinning process for yarn, the raw fibers are separated from their seeds, something termed as ginning.
Today, ginning is done with the use of particular machinery. But back then, women had to make use of their small hands or feet to gin the fibers. After the ginning process, the fibers are cleaned in preparation for spinning.
About the cotton
The cotton is cleaned by removing the bits of dirt, while the carding pulls the fibers to form a parallel line in preparation for the spinning process. They are then rolled over a very thin layer of carded cotton with a specific stick in order to come up with very tight cylinders that measure approximately fifteen centimeters long. Once these are accomplished, the cotton is now ready for the spinning process which will transform it into thread.
When cotton is spun, the shorter fibers are drawn out from the huge mass of cotton and then twists them all together into a very long and continuous thread.
Origin of spinning wheels
Most of the spinning wheels used in India are the ones the Natives called charka. Today, a portable and smaller version of the charka is widely used today. They were invented by Mahatma Gandhi as his donation to the khadi movement in order to enhance the self-sufficiency in India. The threads which were utilized were very fine and were used to come up of the muslin that could be spun using a hand spindle which was called the takli.
Managing the spinning wheel
The spinning machines actually have a spike made of metal which is given the term spindle. It is through this spindle that the threads are wind together. The spindle can be turned and attached to a pulley that is attached to a bigger wheel, if not a few wheels. A single complete turn of the wheel is capable of turning the spindle a lot of times, just like what occurs to the gears that are attached to a bicycle.
Each of these cycles only takes a few seconds. They are able to pull the fibers from the cylinder, getting to twist the threads and then winding them to a finished product. When the threads are finished, they can be now dyed and treated with different chemicals so that shrinkage or unnecessary creasing is prevented, if not totally avoided, before they are woven into a particularly patterned fabric.
Forming filaments
The earliest tools which Natives used for forming filamentous substances into a thread that is continuous, is most probably the spindle and the distaff. Although this certain method is still largely utilized by a group of Natives, it is regarded by many as part of the ancient barbaric period.
The invention of the spinning wheel was actually the first improvement to this very simple contrivance. With the spinning wheel, construction of fabrics had huge improvements which did not largely base in the skills of today’s artisans but instead are accomplished through mechanical means which guarantee more accuracy.
It is through the wide use of spinning wheels that products were created in a much more rapid pace and a quick increase in the number of today’s cotton manufacturers.
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