Reviving the lost art of making silk parasols (3)

All the bamboo ribs, made only of henon variety bamboo, come from Lin'an County in Hangzhou. The silk is high quality and it takes four or five crafts people two days to make one parasol in Zhang's studio. Each is made from a single large bamboo tube, sliced into 32 ribs. When the parasol is folded, the ribs fit together into a tube-shape.

The most expensive silk parasol made by Zhang was valued at 7,000 yuan. She made it with Wang Wenying, an expert in sewing machine embroidery. Wang sewed plum blossoms on surface.

In the early 1990s, the Hangzhou umbrella factory closed, replaced by many factories turning out synthetic umbrellas with metal ribs. At that time, many traditional crafts were threatened. In 1987 Zhang went to work at a lace factory in Xiaoshan District.

In 2009, when the National Umbrella Museum was established in Hangzhou, the organizers tried to locate the masters of parasol making.

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