竹编专区Bamboo Weaving

1. Page introduction

Bamboo Weaving

One culm, split into strips thin enough to pass light

Bamboo weaving is older than paper. Woven bamboo traces appear at Neolithic sites, and the craft lives in two places at once today: the workshops in the hills, and the lampshades, baskets and tea trays in city homes.

This page covers four things: how bamboo is chosen, how a strip is split, how an object is woven, and why it has come back into daily use.

2. Choosing bamboo

Where it grows: Bamboo grows widely in the south. Shengzhou and Dongyang in Zhejiang, Qingshen in Sichuan and Anxi in Fujian are known for the craft. People in the hills wove farm tools and pack baskets, people by the water wove fish traps, people on the plains wove drying mats and panniers. Use decides shape first.

Choosing a culm: Age and joint matter. Bamboo around three years old is the most flexible: younger culms are easily bored, older ones split. After cutting, the culm is dried in shade so the moisture goes and the strips shrink less later.

3. Splitting and weaving

Splitting: One into four, four into eight, each strip thinner than the last. The green skin is scraped off and strips are cut to an even width. A strip has to be thin enough to pass light before it will lie flat. Half a millimeter of difference and the whole object goes crooked.

Weaving: The common weaves are square, hexagonal, spiral base and inlaid. A dense base gives stiffness, a loose rim gives softness, and one object often uses several. When the weaving is done, the rim is bound and the piece is lacquered or waxed so the edge does not cut the hand.

Closing the rim: Closing is the hardest step: strips are wound tight ring by ring, the joins hidden inside, and nothing should feel raised under the fingers.

4. Objects and customs

In the past: A pair of bamboo baskets went with a daughter's dowry; the word for basket sounds like the word for boy, so it stood for sons. Fishermen wove traps with a narrow mouth and a wide belly. Pack baskets for mountain paths were woven with two extra layers of strip at the back, so the load would not dig into the spine.

The character of bamboo: Bamboo rises joint by joint, matures in three years and grows again after cutting. Weavers follow the grain rather than forcing it: a strip that will not bend will break if you make it. This is not conquering the material but negotiating with it.

5. Where it is used today

At home: Storage baskets, laundry hampers, fruit bowls, tea trays, coasters and lampshades have all come back into city homes in the past few years. Bamboo breathes, weighs little, survives a fall, and darkens with use.

Design and building: Pendant shades, furniture panels, screens and restaurant partitions use bamboo weaving as a textured, half-transparent material; light crosses the strips and leaves a fine shadow on the wall.

Care: Bamboo objects dislike long soaking; wiping dry is enough. A broken section can be rewoven, and an experienced weaver can repair a basket in half an hour.

6. Where the fine work shows

Look at a basket rim first: whether the binding is even and the joins are hidden. Then look at the strips: whether the width and the color match. Then hold it to the light and see whether the gaps are fine and regular. A good basket keeps its shape when full, and still stands when empty.