The Traditional Quilt Technology Is Becoming Increasingly Lonely.

As the weather turns cold, the old industry "cotton" ushering in a demand "small peak", which is also the busiest time of the year.

There is a cotton shop in Simon Street, West Village of Haian city. Since the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, Hu Chi Kai has been making new quilts for 3 months.

He said that at this time of year, a list of new cotton can often be received.

At the scene, the reporter had the honor to witness the whole process of making the traditional craft.

Although some processes have been mechanized, they are not traditional hand-made cotton bombs, but when you look at a bunch of cotton wool quickly becoming a square quilt with square edges and corners, you can feel that the skill of "playing cotton" still has its own unique charm.

"Dancer" in cotton wool

"Pure handmade" cotton bombs "are hard to trace. Nowadays, cotton is usually twisted by machines.

Hu Zhi wears a mask, and wears a disc on his hand to grind cotton, and a thin layer of cotton wool is laid on his coat.

Hu Zhi Kai said that manual production is too slow, and machines can greatly improve productivity.

However, the process of handmade quilt is still well preserved.

Hu Zhi Kai is a native of Yongjia. He has been doing quilts for over 30 years, and began to learn crafts at the age of 17. He personally experienced the pformation from manual "cotton" to "machine twisted cotton".

Now he and his wife have made quilt shops in Haian for 5 years.

Hu Zhi Kai said, first of all, put the cotton in the machine and wring out the cotton wool, roll it in a few rolls of bamboo, like a big cotton pond; then spread the cotton padded onto a large wooden plank and spread it evenly; after laying it, use a bamboo screen to press the cotton down; next, the red cotton thread should be used, and the yarn should be used for pulling the yarn, which is actually a fine bamboo strip used for picking up the thread. This process is called "on-line".

"On-line" is both meticulous and fast, and two people can cooperate to complete one line, one line.

When both sides of the quilt are pulled into a net with thin cotton thread, they should cover the whole quilt with a large gauze net. After covering two layers of sand net continuously, cover a layer of silk and wrap the cotton wadding to make the quilt set.

The next process is "kneading cotton", which can make fluffy cotton more "serve".

Finally, a thick wooden disc is used to grind cotton (now it is usually replaced by a machine with two discs), so that the cotton and cotton yarn can be bonded together, and then stitched with needles.

The reporter roughly calculated that Hu Zhikai and his wife needed 2 hours to make a quilt, and their efficiency was 5 times that of pure handmade cotton.

The court is becoming increasingly cold.

Hu Zhi Kai said

The cotton comes from Xinjiang and is newly produced this year.

"Handmade quilts are of good quality and warm and comfortable, but the market of handmade quilts is still shrinking, which is not as good as a year."

Hu Zhikai said with emotion, with the development of society, air conditioners are becoming more and more popular, and there are more and more kinds of thermal insulation products.

"Handmade quilt is hard work and physical exertion. If my son does this job, he will not be willing to do it."

Hu Zhi Kai reluctantly said that the quilt production process, dust and cotton fly, young people do not want to learn.

Hu said that two people can make four or five quilts a day, but now people prefer to buy complete sets.

The quilt business is rather cold.

When business is busy, 2 people earn about 200 yuan a day.

Hu said that in the past year, the new quilt was concentrated in the eight or nine and ten months of the lunar calendar, and the most popular one was 5 kilograms of quilt, but the price never went up.

It seems necessary for this traditional handicraft to be cold and cheerless.