Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum

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PATTERN-DYED FABRICS: PASTE-RESIST
The technique of paste-resist dyeing
came into use much later than
the three previously introduced resistdyeing
methods. It evolved from a
combination of wax-resist dyeing and
clamp-resist dyeing. During the Tang
dynasty, when the limited supply of wax
could not meet the growing need, dyers
began to look for substitutes. Starch was
used, but it did not work well because
of its solubility. Eventually, a new method
was devised whereby glue mixed with ashes of plant or burnt clam
shells served as a resist-paste. The process involved applying paste
to a silk fabric through the cutout areas of a wooden stencil or
by using pattern-engraved stamps.1 After dyeing and removal of
the paste the pattern reproduced
would be in reserve
against a coloured ground.
Silks patterned in this manner
were called huixie (patterned
textiles [resist-dyed
with] ashes).2 This at first
appeared to be the solution
to getting around the
short supply of wax. Yet,
one major drawback was
soon discovered. The high
alkaline content of the ash
in the paste was found to
damage the delicate surface
structure of the silk. Another way had to be found.
In time, by trial and error, soya bean flour and slaked lime
proved to be readily available ingredients that can be conveniently
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made into paste form. Paper stencils, which were a lot easier to cut,
also gradually replaced wooden ones. During the Song dynasty, when
the cultivation of cotton became more widespread in China, cotton,
too, was favoured over silk for patterning using this method because
alkaline paste produced no adverse effect on cotton fibres.
The blue-and-white patterned cotton we see today has its distant
origin in this period. According to record, a man from a family
named Cui living in the town of Jiading in Jiangsu province created
a textile called yaoban bu (cloth with dyed markings). The cloth was
simply described as being dyed in indigo using ashes as a resist agent.
Decorated with patterns including figures, birds, flowers, and poetic
texts in blue and white, it was mainly used for making quilt covers
and bed curtains.3 Apparently this new product was well received
and dyers were quick to imitate.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties this kind of decorated cloth
became so popular that it was produced wherever cotton was grown.
It also acquired another name, jiaohua bu (cloth with stenciled
motifs). By this time, paste made of soya bean flour and slaked lime
was preferred over paste made with plant or shell ashes. Although patterns
dyed in blue and white predominated, they were dyed in other
colours as well. Among the tens of thousands of rural workshops that
specialized in producing the jiaohua bu those located in the provinces
of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Hunan became particularly
renowned for their products. Stencils made in Suzhou, for instance,
were in such great demand that
they were eagerly sought after not
only by dyers living in other towns
in the same Jiangsu province, but
also by those living in other provinces,
such as Zhejiang, Anhui,
Fujian, and faraway Shandong.4
Stencils produced in Changde in
Hunan province also reached as