Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum

her hometown Nijing to impart her newly acquired knowledge to
fellow weavers as well as to redesign some of the necessary tools.5
As a result, cotton production flourished in the Songjiang area where
the town of Nijing was situated. The quality of the product, too, was
highly esteemed.
Cotton cultivation and weaving continued to flourish during the
Ming and Qing dynasties. During the better part of the Ming dynasty
cotton was in such high demand that many peasants living in the
Yangzi River delta devoted as much as seven-tenths of their land
allotment to growing cotton, leaving only three-tenths of it for rice.6
By this time the most common varieties of cotton cultivated were the
shumian (Cossypium arboreum) which was widely cultivated south
of the Yellow River, the caomian (Cossypium herbaceum) which was
largely cultivated in the provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan,
Cansu, and Xinjiang, and the mumian (Cossypium barbadense),
which was most popular in the southern provinces of Yunnan,
Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Taiwan.
Methods of cotton cultivation vary according to
geographical location and climate. Generally speaking,
seeds are sown in the spring. Great care must be
taken when seedlings are transplanted. During the
growing period, thinning, weeding, watering, and
fertilization are essential for proper development.
Flowers begin to bloom in late July or early August.
The fruit forms in capsules called bolls ripen from August
to October. The opened bolls must be harvested before they fall to
the ground.
Preparing raw cotton for weaving requires a number of steps.
Ginning removes the seeds. Fluffing loosens the fibres as well as
removes impurities. Carding turns cotton into slivers in which the
fibres are evenly distributed. This is followed by reeling, skeining,
on variety and quality. It can be bleached to become really white.
Whether treated or not, it can be used for embroidery and weaving.
The finished products of the untreated cotton would be plain,
but cotton yarn can also be dyed into many desirable colours. By
mixing dyed and undyed cotton yarns in embroidery and weaving,
endless colour combinations and designs can be achieved in the
end-products. An alternative way of embellishment is by dyeing after
cotton yarns in their natural state have been woven into cloth. Not
only solid-colour cloth in any hue can be produced, but also a great
variety of attractive designs can be created on cloth by a variety of
dyeing techniques, notably tie-dyeing, wax-resist, clamp-resist, and
paste-resist dyeing.
washing, starching, steaming, drying, unwinding, and spinning.7
Cotton yarn is creamy white or off-white in colour, depending
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