Chapter 152 Working Together
Although Zhao Chunhua tried her best, the filaments still looked jagged due to her limited technical skills.
In the end, the pot brush she made was barely usable, but it didn't look very good in appearance.
However, perhaps because there is not much fun in her daily life, it is this kind of energy-consuming but mediocre work that arouses her desire for challenge.
After comforting the child and making him fall asleep, Zhao Chunhua plucked up her courage again, picked up the axe again, and prepared to make a second attempt at making a bamboo pot brush.
Since it was too difficult for her to process a whole section of bamboo at one time, she decided to use a simpler and more effective method: first cut the bamboo into several small pieces and process them separately. After completion, she selected the best parts and combined them together in order to achieve the best effect.
This time, Zhao Chunhua was determined not to back down easily, no matter how insignificant the matter was.
There’s a saying that goes, “Mastery comes naturally to skill,” and another one is, “Skill comes naturally to practice.”
Because of this, with Zhao Chunhua's unremitting efforts, she finally split three bamboo joints in a row in one night and obtained a bamboo pot brush that was not only beautiful in appearance but also extremely practical.
Seeing the achievements made through her hard work, Zhao Chunhua's persistence and stubbornness finally eased.
When she finished cleaning the living room and lay down on the comfortable bed to rest, she thought to herself: Some things should be left to more professional people to make money. Next time when I need a pot scrubber, I might as well just buy one. After all, only a few of them will break in a year.
The next morning, Zhao Chunhua and Shu Ziying went up the mountain together to collect pine needles, carrying their young son Xiao Shitou on their backs.
You can see endless green here almost all year round, as if the trees on the mountain always remain green.
It's not because the leaves here will never age and turn yellow, but because the old and the new are constantly alternating, and there are always new tender leaves emerging, making people feel that these trees are always so vibrant.
This change is particularly noticeable in spring, when a large number of new buds sprout out.
Looking around, the entire hillside is covered with fresh green and deep dark green. This is a period in the transition of seasons that best reflects the wonders of nature.
They didn't walk too far today, just wandering around the pine forest at the foot of the mountain.
The ground was covered with yellow and green pine needles, which meant that they had not completely lost their moisture and become dry.
Although pine needles are good fire starters, they are not completely dry at this time, so people need to dry them themselves before they can be used.
In addition, it is the busy farming season and everyone's schedule is very tight, so many people choose to wait until October to take a rake into the mountains. At that time, they can directly pick up pine needles that have been naturally dried and can be used directly for fire.
Zhao Chunhua brought a basket this time with the purpose of collecting some such pine needles.
However, they collected these pine needles not for use as firewood, but for another purpose - to make pine needle pots.
For them, pine needles that are not yet completely dry are actually more suitable for this job.
She picked up a handful of pine needles, rummaged through them in her palm, and then carefully selected the ones that met her requirements.
The remaining small
The branches and leaves are directly placed into the burlap bags that have been prepared in advance and stored.
Now that we are here, it wouldn't be a big deal to pick up some materials that can be used to ignite the fire.
Finally, all the collected pine needles need to be washed several times with clean water to remove dust and impurities, and then put into a pot and cooked with water until soft.
This meticulous process renders the pine needles extremely pliable and durable, making them ideal for making long-lasting, unbreakable containers.
The pine needles treated in this way are more attractive both in feel and appearance.
Earlier, Zhao Chunhua spent a lot of effort cleaning up the starch that had been settled in the jar for a long time. During this period, she carefully changed the water twice to ensure that the impurities were completely removed.
From then on, she and Shu Ziying worked together and began to engage in the creative activity of making pine needle jars.
Even the most ordinary wooden box costs money to buy on the market, but a jar made by hand from pine needles can be completely self-sufficient without any additional expenses.
Although this process requires a lot of time and effort, and you have to prepare materials such as hemp thread for sewing, for those who want to make it by themselves, you can make as much as you want, depending on your personal preference and mood.
Some people even skip the twine step when trying this craft, and instead rely on clever adjustments to the arrangement of the pine needles to keep them firmly in shape without falling apart, which is also a good option.
However, as her skills in this area were not very proficient, Zhao Chunhua finally decided to proceed in the traditional way, that is, to use twine to further reinforce the entire finished product in order to achieve the best effect.
After all, it’s always safer to follow a proven process during the learning phase.
First, they selected several bamboo joints that were similar in size to chopsticks and hollow in the middle, and then stuffed them with fully dried pine needles one by one.
Then take a piece of tough and tensile-resistant hemp rope and wrap it tightly around the bamboo joint about two centimeters away from the top, marking it as the starting point.
Then, they are gradually and tightly and orderly wound up and down the bamboo, and at the same time, needles are used to pass through the stacked loops to fix them, so that each line is tightly connected and inseparable.
Next, repeat this winding action twice at every one centimeter, and use the perforation technology to make each strand of hemp rope fit together firmly.
During this process, whenever you feel it is necessary to add new pine needles, you need to be particularly careful to add them one by one from the middle part. The whole process not only tests the maker's patience, but also requires him to have good detail processing skills.
Finally, when the basic shape is almost formed, stop filling it with material and just firmly secure all the parts that have not yet been tied around the main body and trim off any excess twine as a finishing touch.
If you want to know more detailed steps, you can refer to the relevant video tutorials shared online to learn.
This time, Zhao Chunhua made a total of two small baskets with low edges, which are very suitable for placing various small items commonly used in life.
Inspired by this, Shu Ziying imitated and created a stamped design on her own.
She looked closely at existing lid structures and then improved them using materials she had on hand.
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