After dinner, the Huo family and Bao Xia's family lit the lamp again and started making sugar.
This time, one hundred shi of cane sugar was sold in Songjiang, and was sold from various places and sent to the capital. Including what Shen Qianzhong bought, there were more than 200 shi in total.
Huo Xi wanted to use the money to buy Zhuangzi, so she wanted to train them all and transport them to Songjiang together.
Therefore, the whole family did not relax, except for sleeping and eating, they almost never stopped.
After a busy night, I was so tired that I fell asleep.
Huo Xi woke up early the next morning, washed herself up and went to have breakfast. Mrs. Yang came in with a box: "Xi'er, is this what you gave to your mother?"
Huo Xi turned her head to look at the porridge and nodded: "Well, almost all the goods this time were sent to Master Mu's shop to be sold. I only left these for mother to play with. Those pieces of foreign cloth, mother will take Use it to make clothes, but don’t keep it, otherwise it will turn yellow and fade.”
"Oh, what do you want mother to do with these pearls and agates? You might as well sell them and buy a field."
"Mom, you are the master's wife now and have servants. Why don't you dress better? It's not like we have no conditions."
Mrs. Yang felt very sweet after hearing this. She was very happy that her daughter was filial.
What woman doesn’t like jewelry?
Touching the beads in the box, he said: "It would be great to sell them. Just bring those velvet flowers. Mom likes those flowers. The flowers are unbroken and she doesn't feel bad if they are lost. I saved these for you and Nian'er." With."
Huo Xi didn't say anything, let her mother arrange it as she pleased. After a while, she would take her to a jewelry shop to find someone to process it into jewelry for her to wear.
Lower your head to eat.
"By the way, mother gave two of those pieces of cloth to Mr. Zuo. Her family seems to be loyal, and her son won't have any other thoughts. We will pay more attention to Xiaokang in the future, and his wife will be kind to us. loyal."
Huo Xi nodded in agreement.
"The remaining pieces are sent to your grandparents. They can't see these goods in Sichuan and Sichuan, so send them all. Aren't you going to Songjiang in a few days? If there are more goods, you can go to Songjiang. I’ll keep a few more for my family from time to time.”
"Okay." Huo Xi nodded.
Shangyong, Li family.
Early in the morning, Mrs. Ma took the Miao family, Cui family, Mingjin and Mingyue to get started.
Last time Huo Xi sent a large box of materials for making velvet flowers, and the family began to learn how to make velvet flowers.
Not knowing much, I made a dozen or so flowers and sent them to Tantan Market in Shangyong County.
Unexpectedly, it was surprisingly easy to sell, and one flower was sold for one tael of silver! The Birds Struggle for Spring made by Ma also sold for one tael of silver!
For a dozen velvet flowers, you get more than three taels of silver!
Moreover, the shopkeeper thought they were hiding the remaining velvet flowers and wanted to sell them elsewhere, so he held them back and refused to let them go.
Surprise the whole family.
This is because there are fewer people who are not proficient in making it at the beginning. Once you become proficient, it is not a problem for one person to make two or three flowers a day.
Moreover, if everyone divides the work, like the assembly line operation mentioned by Xi'er, more velvet flowers can be produced. Saving ten taels of silver a month is not a problem.
The family was in high spirits, lighting lamps and cooking wax at night, and getting up and busy at dawn every day.
Making this velvet flower is not simple at all. There are more than a dozen processes, and they are all very delicate work. The family has never done anything before.
Fortunately, Huo Xi wrote a detailed tutorial for them and sent them all the materials and tools.
Even the raw silk was boiled into cooked silk for them, dyed in various colors and sent to them. They also sent a box of sample patterns to them, and the women in the family learned to make it.
From being cautious and slowly exploring at the beginning, I am now becoming more and more proficient.
Moreover, the family had bought and worn velvet flowers in the capital before, and had seen many patterns. The Ma family and the Miao family and the Cui family also grew up among the wealthy, so it was not difficult to think of a few patterns.
Nowadays, the two processes of ripening and dyeing are omitted. The five women are only busy with the remaining processes.
Xiao Mingyue split the cooked silk dyed in various colors and fixed it on wooden clamps to arrange them evenly. Then she used a pig-brown brush to comb them through as if she were combing hair.
Split these silk threads into finer threads, and then pick out the miscellaneous threads.
Mingyue likes to do this job very much.
She was not good at other processes, but touching the soft silk threads was just like combing hair, combing them smoother and finer, and then picking out stray strands. She liked doing this job very much.
Her aunt Miao used charcoal fire to burn the brass wires to soften them.
Then after Mingyue finished combing the yarn of a color, Miao cut the Huangtong silk into different lengths and clamped them on both sides of the silk, one finger wide apart.
Then cut these clamped wool yarns, put them in a basket of one color, and Mingjin will hook and roll them.
Mingjin twisted the cut velvet into a spiral shape, and then gently rubbed it with a wooden brush to turn it into fluffy velvet strips. These velvet strips are the basic materials for making velvet flowers.
Mingjin made velvet strips of various colors, and then his aunt Cui made the velvet strips sharp and trimmed.
Ms. Cui used scissors to trim these velvet strips into different shapes, styles and sizes based on the drawings drawn by her mother-in-law.
The final step of passing flowers is made by Ma.
Ma has a calm personality and comes from a scholar's family. She is a master of poetry, calligraphy and painting. She has used and seen many kinds of jewelry. It is not difficult for her to style and combine the pointed and trimmed velvet strips.
I saw her holding tweezers in one hand and a velvet strip in the other, and using it with leather paper, copper wire and other materials, she was twisting, gluing and pasting it. After a while, a pink chrysanthemum was made, with two pieces attached.
Green leaves.
"nice."
Li Shimian stood next to his old wife and saw that she had finished making a velvet flower and was looking at it carefully while holding the copper wire. He praised it generously.
Ma immediately felt a little proud on his face: "It means I have never done it before, and I have been struggling for many days. After I thought about it thoroughly, it became easy."
"This is so simple. I feel dizzy when I look at you who are splitting velvet, carding velvet, burning copper wire, cutting velvet, hooking, rubbing, sharpening and trimming."
Ma then said: "Then how much money do you think a small flower can be sold for in the capital? Is it easy to make a velvet flower? This is not scraps, it is fine silk! If there are beads and gold and silver pieces,
, I can do better."
"When you get the money from the sale, you take Mingjin and Mingyue to buy some."
"You don't need to tell me. I'll look for some silk and dyes then, and we can do it ourselves, so that Sister Ning won't have to worry about us. Oh, Sister Ning sent us so much silk, I'm shocked just to see it.
Heartbroken."
"My son is filial and has given us this craft for our whole family." Li Shi raised the corner of his mouth.
Miao and Cui listened on the sidelines and nodded with a smile: "Sister Ning feels sorry for her maternal grandparents. She is afraid that we will still wash clothes, collect firewood and sell money for sending all these things."
"It's hard for this child to think so carefully at such a young age." Ma touched the velvet flower in her hand and felt very uncomfortable thinking about her granddaughter who was working hard in the capital with her younger brother.
Li Shimian glanced at his old wife, changed the subject and said, "I saw that it didn't take long for you to make one flower. Aren't you afraid that others will also learn to make it and steal our business?"
Ma immediately sat up straight: "Even if they come here to learn, they can't take it away. I'm not boasting, I don't have a few ideas in my mind, I don't know how to match colors or shapes, and the things I make are not spiritual.
It can’t be sold at a high price.”
Li Shimian looked at her and smiled: "And your granddaughter sends you some new tricks from the capital from time to time, right?"
"That's the headdress pattern in my mind, plus the new pattern sent by Sister Ning, who can take away our business!"
With a proud face on his face, Ma put down the velvet flowers in his hand, then picked up the velvet flowers in the basket and started making them.