Beeswax painted linen

Ngoc Chien Commune, Muong La District, Son La Province has 15 villages, seven of which are inhabited by the H'Mong ethnic group. The H'Mong people here still preserve and promote many unique cultural features; including the use of boiled beeswax to paint on linen.

During the drawing process, the wax is heated constantly over low heat to burn evenly.

Beeswax used as ink has two types: yellow and black. The commonly used beeswax is beeswax, after extracting all the honey, the wax is heated on a small stove. After the beeswax is melted, the two types of yellow and black are mixed together to correspond to the darkness and lightness. The drawing pen is a special tool designed with two copper sheets and a small bamboo stick about 10-15 cm long, with a small empty space in the middle of the two copper sheets to form a place to hold the beeswax. The pen tip is a triangular copper sheet with a pointed tip, clamped to the bamboo stick.

There are three types of drawing pens, one type is for sketching and drawing straight lines using a large nib, and the other type is for drawing patterns using a small nib, the thinner the nib, the more beautiful and easier it is to draw patterns.

The drawings are very simple motifs and patterns with borders of squares, crosses combined with diamonds, triangles, circles, and sawtooth shapes...

According to the process, when the pattern is finished, the fabric will be put into a pot of boiling water, stirring constantly to remove the wax layer, then the pattern will have natural color on the fabric, durable color. After boiling, the fabric is dyed indigo and then dried in the sun. These fabrics will be sewn into traditional costumes of the H'Mong people.

A familiar image when visiting villages with H'Mong people living in Ngoc Chien commune.

QUOC TUAN

Source: https://nhandan.vn/vai-lanh-ve-sap-ong-post797849.html