96
Y. Luo
9 Xia Bu Products
Today Xia Bu fabrics are mainly used in high-end home textile. This market trend
reflects ramie’s special features, which land themselves to summer bedding sheets,
pillows, upholsteries, handbags, wallpapers and many more.
10 Hand-Loom Weaving
A hand-loom is a simple machine used for weaving. In wooden vertical-shaft looms,
the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through
a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the
shaft raises half the threads and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads. The
threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. This was
great invention in the thirteenth century.
21
Hand weaved Xia Bu sample By Master Tan Zhi Xiang.
Master Tan is the fifth-generation weaver in Liu Yang Village. From the delicate
texture, complex patterns and great density of his works, we can be convinced of the
hours Master Tan spent in his world. He is taciturn (Photos 10 and 11).
Photo 10 Master Tan is working
21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loom accessed on 18/08/2019.