Pan Jinhua thought about the doll idea for several days, but ultimately gave up on it.
IP is not easy to create. Every major modern IP has a profound meaning, and every reader will have a thousand interpretations of Hamlet.
The national conditions are different. In this era where human life is as cheap as grass, if she were to release Journey to the West, she might be accused of disrespect, and if the Li family were to fall into a literary inquisition, they would be completely finished!
No, no, absolutely not.
The path of creating an IP and making dolls is not viable. Pan Jinhua is indeed so worried that she can't eat or sleep. Dolls can make money, but only for a short period of time. Without copyright, it's just doing the work for someone else.
One morning, when Liu Yun came to pay his respects, Pan Jinhua noticed the delicate hairpin in Liu Yun's hair and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
Velvet flowers!
How could she not have thought of a way that would both fit the times and maximize Yan Min's and others' aesthetic sense?
Velvet flower hairpins are now considered an intangible cultural heritage.
Many young people today work as hairpin makers; in her past life, her best friend's granddaughter was one of them.
She and her best friend also took a lot of photos for her.
Pan Jinhua became more and more excited as she thought about it. This was much simpler than embroidery. Nowadays, people like to wear flowers in their hair, and some wear artificial flowers, mainly made of gold, silver, silk, and velvet. Velvet flowers are even more exquisite, lifelike and breathtakingly beautiful.
The velvet flower hairpin filled Pan Jinhua with an involuntary surge of excitement. The intangible cultural heritage was being brought back to life in this world. With five thousand years of civilization in China, she felt incredibly confident, backed by her hometown.
She quickly sought out Li Qingyao to help her draw some blueprints.
The three Li brothers, Xu Ming and Li Qingzhang, are busy with their business, and Li Qingzhang is not having an easy time either. Now he can only order around the young clan leader.
After listening to Pan Jinhua's description, Li Qingyao quickly helped her draw all the blueprints.
"Grandma, what is this for?"
Now, Li Qingyao and Wang Jiao are also calling their grandmother along with the other children in the Li family.
“This is good stuff. You don’t need it. Give it to your mother and your sisters.”
Pan Jinhua smiled mysteriously.
The blueprints were handed over to Li Qingzhang, who was currently out and about, so it would be more convenient for him to find a blacksmith to make tools.
Pan Jinhua then asked Li Xujiang to make her a wood-based slab, which was actually just two pieces of wood, one large and one small.
The key to velvet flowers is the silk thread; Suzhou embroidery thread and silkworm silk thread are both good choices.
The price was also very high, especially the dyed ones. Dyed threads were very valuable in this era, but the money had to be spent because Pan Jinhua didn't know how to dye them.
There's no need to buy that; the women in my family do embroidery, so that money has already been spent.
Pan Jinhua waited patiently for many days, and finally all the tools were in her hands, along with a lot of fine copper wire.
Copper was used as currency, so copper wire wasn't cheap.
"We absolutely have to make a lot of money; we can't afford to sell at a loss."
Pan Jinhua muttered to herself as she took her tools and went to find Yan Min and the others.
"I've got something good to show you today."
Pan Jinhua spoke mysteriously to the three sisters, Yan Min and Li Qingruo.
Pan Jinhua took out all the tools and placed them on the table, and then took out a wooden frame.
"Yan Min, can you help me choose some threads? I need two sets of each of peach pink, pink, light pink, and white, with five threads in each set."
Yan Min didn't understand, but she still followed Pan Jinhua's instructions and picked up the thread. Those who did embroidery had the most discerning eyes. Recognizing colors was a skill they had to learn from a young age, especially the daughters of officials.
I'm quite adept at picking threads.
Pan Jinhua planned to make a velvet flower imitation kingfisher feather hairpin. Yan Min selected the thread, and Pan Jinhua used the knitting technique to tie the silk thread to the small wooden stick that she had Li Xujiang polish, arranging it according to color, with the two sides being the most vibrant and the middle the lightest.
After tying it up, she inserted the small wooden stick into the hole on the small wooden frame.
After securing them, Li Qingruo handed over a damp towel, which was used to wipe the threads to prevent static electricity.
As the silk thread brushed past, Pan Jinhua took out a large brush that she had specially commissioned. The brush was made of pig bristles, and the bristles were quite dense.
"Watch closely, now it's combing the fibers."
Pan Jinhua pinched the bottom of the silk thread with one hand and pulled it tight. Since the thread was made of silkworm silk, the splitting process was unnecessary. With her other hand, she held a brush and combed it from top to bottom.
"Don't break the comb, keep combing all the way through so that the silk doesn't curl or tangle. This step is very important. Once you can't see any obvious silk threads, the fluff is done."
Pan Jinhua grabbed the combed fluff and pressed it down with something.
"You have to be on your guard."
Pan Jinhua reiterated the key points.
Pan Jinhua took out her cloth finger cots. Twisting copper wire was no easy task. She pulled out a copper wire.
"Now we're going to twist the wire. First, fold the copper wire in half, twist the folded side tightly, and spread the other side out. Clip it onto the wire, pinch it, and twist it tightly to fix the copper wire onto the wire. It must be straight. You can see the indentation when it's clipped properly."
"Pull the copper wire to the bottom, then continue rubbing it. Keep rubbing the copper wire. Yan Min, come and try."
Pan Jinhua rubbed a few strands, and her hands got tired. There was nothing she could do; she was just too old.
Yan Min took over and diligently followed Pan Jinhua's instructions. Being young, she quickly tied up a row of ropes.
The velvet batting is finished.
"The pile is ready. Now take the pile down from the rack and cut it out with scissors, making sure it's centered."
Yan Min did as instructed, picked up the large scissors, and this step was much easier than tying the velvet. She snipped and snipped, and it was done.
"Grandma, we finally managed to tie it up, why did you cut it off again?"
Li Qingfei felt it was a pity that all the good silkworm silk had been cut off.
"Take a look first, the next part is the most important."
After cutting the velvet strips, Pan Jinhua asked Yan Min to align them one by one, making sure the copper wire was in the center. Li Qingruo and Li Qingfei also helped with the alignment.
With a twist of both hands, it was shaped into a small brush.
Hold one end of the copper wire and place the velvet strip on the spun yarn board. With the yarn suspended in the air, spun it two and a half times on the spun yarn board. This will make the velvet strip even more fluffy.
"Pay attention, you can only roll the wire two and a half times. That's the optimal state. If you roll it any further, the copper wire will get tangled. Don't panic. If it gets tangled, just roll it back a bit and it will be fine."
Several people tried it, and it was very simple; they all mastered it.
Pan Jinhua then instructed them to each take their own small scissors and trim the velvet strips into a spindle shape. This step required care and patience, as the velvet strips could easily be ruined if not handled carefully.
All three of them were skilled with their hands, and after breaking a few, they figured out the trick.
The cut velvet flowers were bent and aligned, and the copper wires were twisted, making them cute and pretty. Even Li Qingzhi joined the team twisting velvet flowers.
That's when we need a magic tool: the ancient iron.
It was a long-handled copper object containing red-hot charcoal. When you gently pressed it against the velvet flower, the flower flattened.
Both sides needed to be ironed. Yan Min knew the method, so she took it from Pan Jinhua and ironed it herself.
Li Qingruo wasn't idle either; Pan Jinhua also arranged things for her.
—Auxiliary shaping.
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