106. Traditional Crafts
"...Gold leaf is just thin sheets of gold," Su Liu said helplessly. "Anyway, let's take it one step at a time. It's not easy to make a Persian carpet."
Only now did she realize that she seemed to have caused herself a lot of trouble just to see Ansel's regretful expression.
However, we have already come this far and cannot give up halfway.
Si Mingye and Yan Ziyan continued to collect wool, while Su Liu took some plants from his own land and took the airship back to the military headquarters.
There are a lot of problems piling up at the headquarters that need to be solved by Su Liu. Some plants have been infected for the second time, some are on the verge of withering and dying, and some are half-dead after being planted.
Su Liu first planted mulberry trees in the ruins garden, and then properly placed the white and tender silkworms, and then went to solve the problem.
It took several days, but I finally managed to complete the task.
During this period, the purifiers sent by Shudelai also mastered the technology of silkworm breeding.
A group of older people who were well-known in the entire association stood in Su Liu's office like elementary school students, waiting for her orders.
Su Liu didn't have time to be modest and went straight to the point: "Silk reeling is the process of extracting silk from silk cocoons. The most traditional method is to place the cocoons in hot water and extract the silk bit by bit."
She took a few silk cocoons as a demonstration, and the purifiers gathered around. Some took pictures, while others looked at them carefully with magnifying glasses and marveled at them.
A purifier said: "According to ancient documents, the silk reeling process includes boiling cocoons, sheathing, reeling, joining the threads, and winding. Although there are illustrations, we don't quite understand it."
After all, it is something completely unfamiliar, it would be a miracle if I could understand it.
In fact, Su Liu only had a vague understanding of the process and had never actually practiced silk reeling.
She only followed her memory and asked Shudelai to order people to make a modern silk reeling machine, which could greatly improve work efficiency.
Several people stayed in the room all day, studying how to reel silk using a silk reeling machine.
Under the operation of the machine, white silk cocoons are quickly pulled out into silk threads, which are then neatly wound around the tool.
In order to verify the maturity of the mulberry silk, Su Liu borrowed a loom and wove the silk into fabric.
A piece of cloth was spread on the table, and the purification technicians walked around the table and carefully examined it 360 degrees.
"It's so beautiful! The luster is softer than the most expensive natural pearls."
"It feels smooth and delicate, even more moisturizing than egg white. No wonder ancient people said that mulberry silk was exclusively for the royal family. Even in today's interstellar space, such fabric is not something that nobles can easily possess."
"I just don't know how it will feel when I wear it. Is it comfortable and breathable?"
For a moment, everyone looked at Su Liu.
Su Liu said: "I haven't worn it."
Seeing the people visibly disappointed, Su Liu continued, "But mulberry silk is called soft gold because it must be very comfortable. Otherwise, why would people wear it?"
The purifiers thought it made sense, but at the same time they felt sorry that even if they personally participated in the silk reeling and weaving, they could not truly own such a perfect piece of mulberry silk cloth.
Su Liu also discussed mulberry silkworm breeding techniques with them, and left all subsequent matters of silkworm breeding and mulberry planting to them.
Once you get the silk, the next step is dye.
After returning to Ives's house, Su Liu laid out the dyes he brought from school: perilla.
Perilla can be used to extract elegant and noble purple juice, which can be used as a pure natural dye.
Purple alone is not enough, so Su Liu paid extra attention to other plants and minerals during his exploration.
She brought back turmeric, cinnabar, celosia, and malachite, and extracted blue dye from existing azurite and bright yellow from gardenia.
By processing the green tea at the same time, a gradient of light brown and dark brown can be extracted.
Extracting so many natural colors is also a very laborious task.
Su Liu found help.
Silena said with great interest, "You can dye naturally? Okay, if you teach me, I can dye my own clothes in the future."
"It's not that simple. Ordinary people can't just grow plants casually." Before Selina's face fell, Su Liu said, "But I can make some more dyes for you."
Silena then became happy, rolled up her sleeves and asked, "What do you want me to help you with?"
Su Liu pointed to a large pile of natural minerals nearby.
"Grind these into powder."
Silena looked at the mountains of ore and asked, "...Are you planning to open a mine?"
"Hey, I'm not asking you to grind the flour by hand. Go find a machine."
This little thing was not difficult for the Ives family's internal affairs secretary. Selina wiped her face and after a few phone calls, she finally found a machine of the right size.
The two men worked separately, one extracted plant dyes from plant sap, and the other extracted mineral dyes from ore.
Because the noise of grinding the stone was so loud, Ansel was startled.
He hung up a few business calls and came to Selina angrily.
By the time Silena finished her story, his anger had mostly subsided. Looking at the unfinished mineral dye, his expression had become somewhat flattering.
"That woman is going to make a Persian rug? Are these the dyes she prepared?"
Selina wiped the sweat off her face and said, "Yes, Third Young Master, she seems to have prepared the silk and wool. As long as the dyes and gold and silver threads are prepared, we can start work."
Ansel knew a little about Su Liu's abilities from his brothers and did not question it too much.
After holding it in for a long time, Ansel snatched the ore from Selina.
"Let me help too!"
"Third Young Master?"
"Then you can tell that woman that I helped her without knowing it. Hehe, considering that I also put in the labor, there's no way she would completely reject me and not let me see what a real Persian carpet looks like, right?"
With great expectations for the Persian carpet, Ansel was so motivated that he operated the machine too hard and cut his own floor into pieces.
After dealing with the dyes, you'll need gold and silver.
This is real money. Su Liu does not have such huge financial resources, and he is reluctant to exchange his salary for gold just to make a carpet.
Fortunately, the general who had been paying attention to this matter took the initiative to provide help.
In the middle of the night, he tore the carved metal door apart again, destroyed all attack programs amid the almost desperate roar of the artificial intelligence, and took Su Liu in to find gold.
Su Liu said nervously, "Isn't this bad?"
Huo Jie said nothing, but just took out one piece, two pieces, three pieces... countless pieces of gold from the safe, piled up higher than Su Liu himself.
Su Liu's conscience briefly triumphed, and with tears streaming down his face, he said, "With so much gold, it's enough to make a hundred Persian carpets!"
"You can make it more ornate. If you need other gems, feel free to use them," Huo Jie urged. "When you're done with the carpet, remember to throw it in Vion's face."
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