Chapter 102 (Chapter 102) Sheng Qingsha

Throughout the Jiangnan region, where silkworms were produced, yarn weaving techniques were highly developed. The types of yarn offered as tribute included Tianjing yarn, dark patterned yarn, chestnut yarn, velvet yarn, plain yarn, floral yarn, crepe yarn, and so on. Among these, the most famous were mostly lightweight yarns.

The name Sheng Qingsha carries a hint of arrogance. People prefer someone who is humble, warm, and polite, rather than flamboyant. They couldn't stand it and started criticizing her even before she was on the show.

However, Lin Xiushui's choice of the name "Xun Qingsha" was an even greater disaster. It was inferior to even light gauze, so why bother creating it?

Of course, some people in Sangqing Town have very sharp tongues. They say that although earthenware pots and porcelain pots are both pots, rice and chaff, even if they are always connected, are not the same material.

Light gauze is not the same as light gauze.

It's neither a tabloid nor a miscellaneous newspaper.

It was almost as if he was telling Lin Xiushui that she was a scoundrel.

The day before the Zayi Times was published, Lin Xiushui heard these comments and rolled her eyes, a rare occurrence for her. She retorted with a single sentence: "It's not about east or west, it's about north or south. I can go anywhere."

She blocked the way, "and also up and down, front and back, inside and outside, left and right, spring, summer, autumn and winter."

Lin Xiushui was very busy, so she didn't waste any more words. Although the Zayi Times was based on the concept of "all kinds of clothing", she hired Wenlin, bought Wang Ding's woodblock beeswax, invited Sizhen, and added a new woodblock New Year picture coloring technique.

Originally, Lin Xiushui hadn't intended to use the newspaper to showcase her work before she launched the drawnwork embroidery, which was even more time-consuming and laborious than making a garment. However, after the newspaper came out, about a dozen women told her that even those who were illiterate felt a strange excitement when they heard someone reading the contents of the newspaper on the street.

There was a woman who had some education and could read a few words. In her younger days, she was happy to spend some money to buy tabloids, but she stopped doing so later.

When she came to the water to fix her clothes that day, she said, "When I first learned to read, I was happy to read anything. I often bought tabloids, but those tabloids were all about the country, the court, and world affairs, such as passing the imperial examinations. They also liked to use all kinds of historical materials. Even if I could understand them, I wanted to talk about them with the people around me."

She gave a wry smile as she said this, "There's not a single person here."

She couldn't discuss with those around her the important world affairs that were only understood by men and not spoken of by women, as reported in the tabloids.

But now, the woman, who was over forty, suddenly laughed out loud, “But after your tabloid came out, I finally made a name for myself and bought a lot of copies to give away. I even had something to talk about during the New Year. I have five or six sisters, and when we get together, we discuss the clothes you made. I can read them to them word by word.”

“I always remember one of your words: eating and dressing are the most important things in life, so there are no small matters when it comes to needlework.”

No one knows how deeply she was moved when she saw that sentence in the tabloid, especially since it was printed out and published.

If exquisitely made clothing can make people like it and spend money, then the descriptions of the fabric in writing, compared to historical records, offer a different kind of comfort and commonality, bringing her to tears.

Therefore, Lin Xiushui spent a lot of effort trying to replace the woodblock printing that only contained text. In the Song Dynasty, there were not as many technologies as in later generations. In later generations, people could update and iterate whatever fabrics and printing methods they wanted.

She wanted to print other colors, preferably the colors and details of the clothing on paper so that even illiterate women could understand them, which was very difficult.

Currently, only New Year pictures use red and green overlay, also known as woodblock New Year pictures. In Lin'an, they are called flower paper. When these two colors are overlayed, vermilion is too red and green is too dark. Originally, these two colors were used on silkworm mother paper horses. The red and green combination is very popular.

Lin Xiushui cannot be used for color layering, and the Sheng Qingsha design is basically a hollowed-out white pattern, which requires white paint. White paint is mostly painted with clam powder, and lead powder is toxic and is no longer commonly used.

After trying many methods, her idea of ​​multi-color seal carving was recognized by many woodblock print artisans. Each piece of clothing could be carved separately on the woodblock.

For example, the entire jacket, the patterns on the clothing, the collar, the hair bun and face of the figure, the entire pleated skirt, etc., are all disassembled and meticulously carved. Then, a mixture of yellow, cinnabar, red, purple, black, and blue is gradually used to print the ink lines and then the ink is applied to the paper.

Lin Xiushui spent nearly one hundred taels of silver to have a professional painter outline and fill in the special white woven openwork pattern with pigments.

Completely different from the festive New Year pictures, the colors of this clothing color stamp are very soft and not as abrupt as bright red and green. The blue is not a deep dark blue, but closer to the sky blue after rain. The green is like the new green of willow leaves, and even if it is a little darker, it is the green of tree leaves.

The Miscellaneous Clothing Times was completed and first circulated in Gu's tailor shop.

A tailor put down his needle and thread, looked up at the sky at first glance, and then suddenly changed his mind, secretly resenting God's injustice, wondering what it meant to only give Lin Xiushui talent.

She's pretty good.

Unlike tabloids, this newspaper wasn't a large sheet that needed to be rolled up. It was divided into three pages, the size of a book, and the paper was thick and white. It had three pages in total.

The topmost "Miscellaneous Clothing Times" was not printed in black ink, but uniformly in green. The characters were also specially treated, with a long needle threaded through the middle of the characters, the stitches winding and twisting, threading the four large characters of "Miscellaneous Clothing Times" from left to right.

Even if you can't read, you can still recognize it.

The opening is titled "Year after year, needle and thread create the scenery."

A group of tailors, heads close together, gathered around the newspaper and all noticed the prominent blank space first.

In the landscape gardens of Jiangnan, an empty window is a window that has been hollowed out of the wall, leaving only the shape of the window without any carvings or openwork inside.

There are five-petal-shaped, round, fan-shaped, vase-shaped, square, and so on. Gardens allow visitors to appreciate the outstretched flower branches through open windows, creating a unique landscape.

Tailors or needleworkers see their own life changing year after year in this place.

Inside each paper window, there are cutting, sewing, and embroidery. Although the colors used are not rich and the details are not many, they still resonate with people.

Without uttering a single word, it's clear that this is how needlework creates beauty.

If the first page of the Miscellaneous Clothing Times evokes a sense of nostalgia, then turning the page to Sheng Qingsha truly makes one sigh involuntarily: everyone uses one needle to do needlework, but Lin Xiushui seems to have used eight needles.

"Her needlework skills are probably better than mine," the blue-clad seamstress reluctantly admitted.

Several people nearby said in unison, "Tell us something that others don't know."

She retorted angrily, "My sewing skills are inferior to hers, okay?"

Indeed, originally, the truth.

After a few words, everyone concluded and ignored her, turning back to their newspapers. The light gauze dress that everyone loved and scrutinized closely, even with just a large blue base and a white background in clam-pink outline, was exquisitely crafted.

The unfolded pattern has a light and sheer texture that is not rigid but light and airy. The white peonies embroidered on it, with their layered petals, do not lose their luster despite being entirely white.

Moreover, when this pure white, large-scale embroidered fabric, with its openwork areas adding much light and shadow, is sewn into a shawl and hung on the shoulders of the figure in the painting, along with a green strapless top and yellow skirt, and a light gauze fabric like a splashing Milky Way slowly draping down from the shoulders to the chest, the unique texture of the painting and the preserved sense of draping make people gasp in amazement.

If even a tailor who is used to making clothes is like this, then other women are even more so.

The newspaper stand, which is usually frequented by men, was now crowded with women after the miscellaneous clothing newspaper came out.

This time, no one said the woman couldn't understand the tabloids.

They can understand it.

You can even hold your head high and proudly tell everyone, "You have no idea. I just found out that the embroidery pattern used here is drawn thread embroidery."

You can also take the newspaper with you and walk among the crowd, discussing with your close friends, "I'm not quite sure about the embroidery on this piece. I learned Suzhou embroidery, and it's not like the straight stitch or the embroidery with the needle, it's a bit thicker than those."

“I don’t think this piece is very heavy. I have a collar embroidered with drawn thread. Come to my house later and take a look. It’s very light. They used just the right amount of thread, and the embroidered pattern is quite unusual,” the young woman with floral decorations on her forehead said excitedly, almost poking the mouth of the passerby across the street.

She quickly withdrew her hand, her face flushed with embarrassment, but when the conversation turned to the neckline, she regained her excitement, saying, "Many of our clothes become heavier when embroidered, but theirs are very light."

"I said there's absolutely no problem with calling her Sheng Qingsha."

She emphasized, "Not at all arrogant."

"If I had half of Lin Xiushui's skills, I could walk sideways."

After she finished speaking, the unfamiliar young woman not far from her suddenly turned around and said uncontrollably, "You like Lin Xiushui too!"

"Me too!"

This prompted five or six more people to turn around, and it turned out they all shared the same interest.

"Her tailor shop is hiring, and they've already hired about twenty people. My cousin got one, and when she came back, she said that Shui Ji pays very generously. Even new employees get two strings of cash, not including the monthly allowance. The lunch is also very good; they order food from Sun Ji Zheng Dian," one of the young women said with envy, lowering her voice. "My cousin also said that if you have your period and are in pain, you can rest and get three days' wages without having to work."

"Once my embroidery skills improve a bit more, I'll definitely become a tailor at Shui Ji."

"That way I won't have to rely on others for food in the future; I can support myself with just my monthly salary."

This had become the thought that drove her to work hard and strive for it; Shuiji was the destination of her journey.

Before this, many people thought that sewing and needlework were just ordinary things and not worth praising. But after it became profitable and was even reported in the newspapers, praising its good fortune year after year, it was no longer looked down upon.

With the release of the Miscellaneous Clothing Times, everyone began to look forward to Lin Xiushui's Shengqingsha Show at the end of February.

Of course, I'm even more looking forward to the next issue of Miscellaneous Clothing Times.

Lin Xiushui also received everyone's love, and she said to Sizhen, "How about it, do you want to do a second issue of the Times?"

In this issue, several well-known headlines in the Miscellaneous Clothing Times were written by Sizhen, and the text compiled inside was a joint effort by her and Wenlin. The design of the floral window was hers.

It was also an idea she came up with with Lin Xiushui, using needle and thread to depict the scenes of each year.

At that time, Sizhen did not think she could do it well.

She always said that there are always mountains beyond mountains, and that one mountain can be released only to be blocked by another.

Now she can answer with certainty, "Okay."

The author's note: Regarding the depiction of lace-like clothing in traditional Chinese paintings, one can refer to the Yuan Dynasty painting of Guanyin with a fish basket.