Silk Roses
One of the most intriguing and often-used materials from ancient times is silk. Silk was not just used for clothing, but also for a variety of other purposes such as wrapping mummies. There are many different types of silk, each with their own properties. In the past, people would discover these properties and use them to their advantage in order to create unusual items like roses out of silk so they could be given as gifts.
Left Image: A necklace made of silk roses. 3rd Century B.C. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Right Image: A real rose and a silk rose from a brooch found in the Mildenhall Treasure, 4th Century . These silk roses have been dyed green.
Both images taken from: www.metmuseum.org
The image on the left is a necklace that has silk roses hanging off of it. One of the prehistoric civilizations that have used silk was the Chinese. They were very good at creating different types of silk, and they are also the ones who made the wonderful event dresses of 7th century B.C. China such as this one .
Below is a depiction of a typical silk rose which is a type of flower commonly found in China. It has six petals and three sepals which are all very similar to how they look on Chinese silk roses today.
The silk roses in ancient China were created by putting silk threads together and then they would stitch them together. The stamens of the flowers were made out of the same material as the petals, while the leaves were silver or gold. The stems of the roses were made out of wood and sometimes had gemstones inlaid into them. Below is an image showing a close-up of a silk rose from around 3rd century B.C.
Left Image : A close-up image for a real silk rose, compared to one that was found on an Egyptian mummy's tomb . They are nearly identical except for how tightly each flower is closed.
Right Image : An image depicting two people making silk roses . The image is from the magazine, Woman's Day and they are using wire to make the stem of the silk roses.
The types of flowers that were made out of silk were not only roses, but also peonies, chrysanthemums and many others as well. A good example of an image depicting flowers made out of silk is shown on the left. The image on the right shows a person making a chrysanthemum out of silk.
Image Left: An image showing two people making peonies out of silks . They are using wire for some parts in order for them to be able to bend.
Image Right: The same concept, but with a chrysanthemum.
The silk roses were often used as an impression for the other parts of the clothing that they are being used on. In ancient China, people would often use the silk flowers to create a very delicate and detailed embroidery. Below is an image of a jewelry box that has several silk roses on it. This is called a "mosaic," and it was originally created in Japan by using three different types of materials: gold, silver and bronze. Silver was also frequently used in order to give off a shiny effect to the finished product.
Left Image : A jewelry box showing a few silk roses on it . The roses are stitched on the box in such a way that they seem to be growing out of the plant surrounding them.
Right Image : A necklace that is covered in silk roses and other flowers . Each flower has been stitched individually onto the necklace so it has a very detailed look.
Another use for silk was for wrapping mummies to preserve the dead body better and make it easier for them to travel to their afterlife. Silk was also used in order to wrap dishes and put writing on them so that people knew what was inside of it. The writing on some of these dishes were about how great the person who owned it was, or sometimes about how much food had been left behind because no one else could eat anymore . On the left is a picture of some food being wrapped in silk, and on the right is a picture of dishes made out of bronze that have silk writing on them .
Left Image : A dish with the preserved body of a baby that was wrapped up in silk . Silk was able to preserve bodies better than any other material because it would not let out any sort of odor. Washing the bodies with soap also helped to preserve them as well.
Right Image : In 1994, archaeologists found a stone tablet that had an inscription on it written about how great Queen Si-Cheng was. The tablet has been dated back to 7th century B.C. and tells people how much she did for her kingdom.
Image Left: A bronze dish with silk writing on it . The writing refers to the owner of the dish as "a woman who knows the five grains and leaves behind no grain and no sample of her gold."
Image Right: A silk embossed dish showing a carving of a Chinese floral pattern. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In ancient China, they would have used silver for their dishes and silver was also used for their silk. Silver was also used to create more elaborate portraits than what were commonly found in paintings in other places at the time. That is because silver could be used to create many different effects as it was a better reflecting material. Below is an image of a portrait made of silk.
Image Left: The image is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Image Right: The portrait looks very much like the person who it was made for and has a very sharp contrast between the color on the face and the rest of the background. In China, light did not pass through cotton so they would use materials like silk in order to make portraits that looked more realistic than paintings done in other places at the time.
Below are two pictures of a silk portrait, one on both sides of this same human being.
Conclusion
Silk has been used for thousands of years and was first discovered in China. Silk is a lightweight material and has many different uses, the most popular being for clothing. It is made out of mulberry leaves which have to be boiled, dried and then it is spun into raw yarn. The raw silk still has to be dyed though before it can be made into clothing or into other items such as paintings or flowers.
Above: A silk painting that depicts a woman who is holding a vase . The artist painted the image using only red and black paint .
Above: An image depicting silk from when it was first being produced in China.
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Silk Roses