Tourists coming here are bustling. It was in the same year that this song was released -20 14 that Lin, who graduated from Central America, also embarked on this road to Yunnan.
However, her fate is different from the lyrics. She didn't stop in Old Town of Lijiang, near Erhai Lake, but went on, reaching a border town named Zhoucheng, a village where the aborigines are mainly Bai people.
Here, there are no swarming tourists, no shops in commercial streets, and no commercial atmosphere. This is a perfect paradise to escape from the complicated life in the city.
When Lin arrived at the entrance of the village, the first sight she saw made her feel sorry for her trip: at first sight, under the eaves full of ethnic style, old women gathered everywhere, making cloth and flowers by hand.
Tie-dyed fabrics hanging under the eaves are connected together, which constitutes the most beautiful oil painting in her heart. The beauty of this primitive and wild tie-dyeing art deeply shocked her, and Lin chose to stay here without hesitation.
Tie-dyeing is an art that has existed since ancient times. Tie-dyeing, also known as tying, twisting, clamping and dyeing, is a traditional and unique dyeing process in China. It is a dyeing method in which the fabric is partially ligated during dyeing, so that the fabric cannot be completely colored.
In Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other places, there are different tie-dyeing techniques, among which Lin studied and popularized this tie-dyeing technique, which belongs to the unique tie-dyeing technique in Yunnan Bai nationality area.
In the local area, this process is made by hand sewing and repeated dyeing with pure natural plant dyes with low irritation to human body. Therefore, the tie-dyed fabric not only feels comfortable, but also smells faint herbal fragrance.
In fact, the reason why Lin insisted on this trip to Yunnan was related to her strong interest in traditional culture in college.
When she was still studying in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, her tutor paid great attention to guiding students to cultivate China's traditional culture and crafts, and constantly went deep into the hinterland of various cultures to study, learn and integrate.
In this process, she went to Jingdezhen to study firing art, also went to a factory in Zhejiang to study glass craft, and even went to Tokyo University of the Arts to study lacquer craft. ...
For college students, Bishe is an unavoidable topic. China is so big, there shouldn't be a college student who hasn't done what he has set.
The reason is very simple, because Lin traveled all over the country to find creative inspiration in order to complete an excellent bi Ji work. The deeper you go into a place, the more subtle the cultural background under the Millennium circulation can be found.
With the continuous blending of cultures, Lin deeply felt the preciousness of traditional skills, which can be called the wealth left by time to the whole country.
Tie-dyeing, a skill buried deep in this border town, attracted her attention. A tie-dyed cloth can only be sold for 100 yuan among tourists, but it is a product that Bai women can weave for several days.
However, the inheritance of traditional skills is not optimistic, such as tie-dyeing, which is mostly done by elderly women in the local area. For foreigners, although it looks novel, because living in the border, its value is not high.
So, Lin, who has studied for a long time, made a decision that may affect her whole artistic career and went to Yunnan to study this kind of tie-dyeing. She wants to revive this craft and even worship local women as teachers.
At first, when the local people saw that such a beautiful and talented young hostess wanted to learn from her teacher, they thought she was joking. What is the attraction of this craft that can be learned in every local household?
Tie-dyeing is boring to do, and you need to endure loneliness and suffering. After all, even the local young people have lost to other places. How can a child from the city stay?
Everyone thinks that she is just a whim and should not last long. Surprisingly, however, Lin insisted.
At first, when she didn't know this skill, she had to go door to door, eat and live with the Bai women in the village, sort out the records of the production process into a complete methodology, and began to learn and practice the skill of dyeing blue.
From planting raw materials (Radix Isatidis used as dye) to tying flowers, cooking cloth, dyeing, fixing color, removing stitches in the process, and finally drying, she spared no effort to keep trying.
The two years of graduate school is also the most frequent time for her to go to go to dali, where she spends half the year. Immersed in the scenery south of the colorful clouds, she gained a lot.
Facing the natural environment of Cangshan Lake and Erhai Lake, and cooperating with the local residential life, she works at sunrise and rests at sunset. Her workshop is halfway up the mountain, and the inn is at the foot of Cangshan Mountain. At the end of the day, she often collapsed in bed with fatigue.
Beginners tied flowers, Lin was in a hurry, and it was a bit clumsy to hold a needle and thread. She always injured herself by mistake and suffered from "work injury", but Lin felt only five words about this period: pain and happiness.
While learning modestly, she boldly tried to "learn to be a teacher", and Lin's ambition began to "swell". After discovering the artistry of her work, she began to wonder how to commercialize it.
Although she has studied for several years, the output of her "works" is still a little "immature" when put together with the fabrics of Bai women who have been tie-dyed for many years and practice makes perfect.
Lin's works are often teased by "masters". My aunt, who has seen many handicrafts, can't help but say sarcastically when she sees her works: "It can't be sold outside and needs to be reworked."
As the saying goes, "foster strengths and avoid weaknesses", Lin's goal is naturally not to make a copy of the aunt in the village. She wants to make a breakthrough in tie-dyeing technology.
She deliberately used the artistic aesthetics she had learned for many years to transform tie-dyeing, and deliberately dyed the patterns unevenly and irregularly, making them have mottled textures and full of wild beauty.
Compared with the traditional clear tie-dye patterns, Lin's tie-dye patterns are more popular and modern. The printing pattern of geometric figures is very stereoscopic, which seems to be somewhat casual and innovative.
She slowly started her own way of realizing money. After returning to Beijing, she thought that the commercialized Lin did not stop her innovation, but continued to create one tie-dye work after another.
In order to be practical, she changed from tie-dyed handicrafts to creating some household items made by tie-dyeing, such as pillows, handkerchiefs and four-piece sets on the bed.
In the first attempt, Lin only decided to sell 8 home textile products. On the sales page, she also emphasized that this is a natural process, and the materials used are the purest materials, pure cotton or pure hemp, as well as medicinal dyes.
Before she was ready to start selling forests, she was a little uneasy. Tie-dyeing is a "brand-new" technology for the public, but in her view, her works conform to the public's aesthetics and have a unique style, but what if the public just doesn't buy it?
Fortunately, to her delight, these eight items were robbed as soon as they were put on the shelves, which fully proved that tie-dyed handmade products really have commercial value.
When the first business was done, Lin gradually felt relieved, continued to ponder, constantly updated and snapped up. Her works are expected by many people, and more and more people buy inquiries, almost to the point where demand exceeds supply.
This great success not only boosted her confidence, but also relieved her mother who didn't understand her daughter before.
A mother's heart is always distressed to see her daughter spend years on this "meaningless" "art" but make no progress, and worry that the best years will pass away in such a hurry.
Lin's mother's attitude has ushered in a change, from her previous incomprehension to her support in action. Later, she took her daughter to Yunnan to plant a raw material for tie dyeing, Banlangen, which helped her complete the later improvement.
How can tie-dyeing be used more widely? How to make it more popular? How to exert its greater value? Lin thought a lot.
In order to enrich the color of tie-dyeing, Lin studied many methods, how to dye it and what kind of effect it will have. Lin wrote them all down and compiled them into a book.
At the same time, compared with Bai traditional tie-dyed clothing, Lin's tie-dyed fabrics are more widely used, and she extends these tie-dyed finished fabrics to various fields.
In furniture, ornaments, decorations, clothing and other aspects, it covers almost all aspects of life, and it is also very eye-catching, both beautiful and practical.
The cotton cloth affected by tie-dyeing is not white cotton commonly used in clothing fabrics, but a wrinkled raw cotton, not so white, not so smooth and soft. In the eyes of many people, it is a "eliminated product" with poor quality.
Just because it can be used for raw cotton that is not so good to wear doesn't mean it is useless. This shortcoming in the eyes of others has become a unique design in the eyes of Lin. She combined pleated cotton cloth with sofa, seat and headrest.
The traditional sofa chair is flat, and Lin added tie-dyed cotton cloth around it. Some directly use the undyed primary colors, and some use the traditional color of tie-dye-blue.
This appearance gives the original ordinary sofa a three-dimensional layering. Because of their unique artistic sense, these sofa seats inspired by traditional crafts were well received by people in many related fields once they were exhibited in China.
If there is only beauty in her works, it is not attractive enough at all. Soul is the most important thing, and the most striking thing in her works is her unique vitality.
No one can imagine that home accessories can look so vibrant, as if they were in nature. It is really rare that such a work of art was born in the hustle and bustle.
Some people say that handmade works of art are the sustenance of the creators. Impressed by what the creator wants to convey. Lin gave her work a unique name. She named a chair "Rhapsody of elopement".
This beautiful name takes its meaning from its special shape, like a vine extending outward, constantly stretching, stretching and wrapping, like a dancing life, with a thrilling tearing beauty.
On the road of the integration of contemporary art and traditional craft, Lin has been exploring constantly. In addition to the creation of small household textile suits, she is also committed to the presentation of art.
The foundation of Spanish luxury brand Loewe announced that Lin, a tie-dye artist from China, won the Loewe Foundation Craft Award 202 1 for her work SHE.
The white cotton cloth on the wall has been knotted, stitched, folded and pleated repeatedly, forming a complex pattern with a "cloud" appearance.
This is another innovation of tie-dyeing process, because actually there is no actual dyeing step, just a tie-dyeing job.
Lin wants to use this small link in the tie-dyeing process to pay tribute to the Bai women who insist on the tie-dyeing process day after day, and also to the excellent traditional skills that can be passed down to this day.
She hasn't forgotten that she can achieve what she is now without her original "learning from the teacher". Applause and flowers also belong to the "masters" in Yunnan, and they have always kept in touch.
"Sometimes, I will take my works completed in Beijing back to my aunts in Dali, and they will feel very surprised and beautiful." Lin will share her works with the "masters".
Moreover, they will give her feedback and pay special attention to where they used what kind of tying method, whether it was horse teeth or small plum blossoms. The relationship between them is not just a simple mentoring relationship.
What is commendable is that even after becoming famous, Lin still maintained his original intention of creation. She doesn't just take dyeing blue as a means of her own creation. Every time a new inspiration begins, she will return to Yunnan.
In her view, tie-dyeing belongs to that land. Only in this environment can creativity extend freely, and it has physical and emotional ties with local people, events, geography and climate.
Driven by Lin's works, tie-dyeing which is as free and easy as ink painting in China is gradually known and amazed by foreign markets. Also let the world see the unique "China Blue".
Lin was not disturbed by his initial success. Even though she has set up her own studio, she still hasn't forgotten her initial interest in tie-dyeing art.
What she loves is the thinking and tranquility brought by this skill, so even in the case of small achievements, she will still enjoy the most essential happiness of tie-dyeing technology in the studio for a while.
With Lin's innovation in tie-dyeing, this technology is not only the fusion of home fabrics, but also works of art in large-scale art exhibitions and even the muse of international luxury brands.
She changed the tie-dyeing process, from an unremarkable "handicraft", which can be bought for 100 yuan when traveling in Yunnan and Sichuan, to an art that can be put in a showcase at home.
After thousands of years of precipitation, the skill shines again, and has experienced the change of "value", from the eaves booth to the exhibition runway, from worthless to thousands of times higher than the price, so that the world can see its glory.
At the same time, even though the price of tie-dyeing is rising, its popularity has not weakened. Now it has gone abroad and has been well received by many international friends.
Tie-dyeing has attracted great attention both in business and art. Even many pavilions in Italy and Spain have reached a willingness to cooperate with Lin's studio.
In fact, in this vast land of China, there are many brilliant cultural pearls that cannot be ignored, emitting fascinating light, but what is lacking is a pair of eyes for discovery and integration.
The uniqueness of time lies in that it is precisely because it has screened out the essence that the skills handed down for thousands of years fit in with the beauty of craftsmanship. This should be the promotion of spiritual civilization that we can achieve while improving the pursuit of material civilization.