In the Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan areas, there has always been a custom that a bright red oil-paper umbrella is used for childrens weddings, which means having children, so the demand for oil-paper umbrellas was once quite large. exuberant. Luzhou oil-paper umbrella was born in response to such demand. It originated from Fenshuiling Town in Luzhou, Sichuan and is famous for its unique tung oil umbrella-making process. Now let’s take a look at oil paper umbrellas made with traditional crafts and ancient methods.
Oil-paper umbrellas made with traditional crafts and ancient methods
There is a national intangible cultural heritage in the north of Hangzhou Certified handmade craftsmanship of the time-honored brand "Sichuan Luzhou Oil Paper Umbrella". Yu Wanlun is the seventh generation inheritor of the traditional craft of oil-paper umbrellas. Yu Wanlun and his wife have been making oil-paper umbrellas for more than 6 years now.
In 2011, they traveled thousands of miles from Sichuan to Hangzhou and settled here just for a belief. They want to work hard to spread the oil-paper umbrella culture that has gone through more than 400 years, but is now frequently impacted by the modern umbrella industry.
Before liberation, every household in Luzhou area was making oil-paper umbrellas, and the annual sales volume of oil-paper umbrellas exceeded 20000,000. But now there are not many craftsmen willing to stay in Luzhou and work hard to make oil-paper umbrellas with meager wages. The lifestyle in big cities has swept away batches of young people, while the old people are slowly getting older.
“In the factory in my hometown in Luzhou, many people no longer work full-time as umbrellas. They all have their own main business. They usually do other businesses, and they can do other business when needed. Lets get together and rush to work."
Yu Wanlun is now increasingly worried about the inheritance of his craftsmanship, and the factory cannot find more workers who can work
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Yu Wanlun said that there are few people here, and they often have to rush work to meet the needs of customers, so the life Most of my hobbies have been abandoned. The only thing I think about when I have free time is to cook a meal for my family. Because his hometown is in Sichuan, it is difficult to taste the taste of his hometown in Hangzhou, so he gradually became a Sichuan cuisine chef.
But later I discovered that even this little hobby conflicts with work. Doing handicrafts inevitably stains his hands. After wiping the umbrella with tung oil, his hands are often stained with color and oil stains that are difficult to clean, making him unable to cook. Gradually, eating three meals a day became very casual, and it also had an impact on my life.
The picture below is of Yu Wanlun wiping tung oil. When wiping tung oil, both hands must be used Soaked in tung oil for a long time
"Making an umbrella is actually very boring, every day Sitting here, doing some repetitive work, it takes a whole day just to thread each umbrella to complete it.
But this is a business passed down from our ancestors. I started helping my mother make umbrellas when I was 7 years old, and I felt that I would make umbrellas in this life. ”
"I once thought about whether to switch to other things. Then I thought about it. If we don’t make oil-paper umbrellas, then there will really be no one. Done.
He skillfully rotated the umbrella stand to demonstrate the process for us
Yu Wanlun: Although there are not enough manpower and it is not easy to persist, Luzhou oil-paper umbrellas still inherit the ancient method. There are as many as 96 processes to make an umbrella
After preparing the materials, the production period of an umbrella is one week, and the process must be strictly followed. No step can be omitted in the operation, so as to make an oil-paper umbrella that can withstand Category 5 typhoons and is durable.
There is no piece of metal in the body of Luzhou oil-paper umbrella, and the brackets are all made of bamboo. Yu Wanlun has visited many bamboo forests in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but has yet to find bamboo that meets the strength requirements.
All bamboo is still cut and chopped from a mountain near Luzhou, Sichuan, and then transported to Hangzhou over long distances. Furthermore, only bamboo that grows on hillsides above 800 meters above sea level and is more than five years old on the sunny side can be selected as materials.
Yu Wanlun: We insist on using three layers of paper to make the umbrella cover. Now, no one does this anymore.
In order to make the umbrella The toughness and strength have reached a certain standard, and the paper used for the umbrella surface is made from tree bark. "Umbrellas sold on the market are all single-layer paper umbrellas. After being used for a period of time, after experiencing thermal expansion and contraction, the umbrella surface will often crack. It will be uneven. The tightly fitting three-layer paper umbrella retains the space for thermal expansion and contraction, which can effectively avoid this problem. ”
Through understanding, I learned how to make a beautiful and tough oil paper umbrella. , what kind of process is roughly required, I will share it with you here.
Build the skeleton
Use Bamboo makes the frame of the umbrella
In order to ensure the curvature of the umbrella surface
These bamboo skeletons They are all made by hand.
