蓝印花布

徐红新 苏州科技大学

民间花布印染历史悠久，早在一千七百多年前的东汉时代，印花技术便已问世。唐宋时代，印染布品愈加精美。蓝印花布的印染工艺简便易行：匠师以油纸制成花版蒙在白布上，然后用石灰、豆粉和水调成的防染粉浆刮印，晒干后用蓝靛染色，晾干，刮去粉浆，花布便印染完成。以往南北各地村镇均有大小染坊。民间匠师置几口大缸，几根棒槌，一块大的碾布石，便染出疋疋绚丽的印花布。印花布分蓝、白二色，质朴典雅，纹样多为花鸟、虫鱼、方胜、古钱以及回纹、三角、八角等。

Blue Calicos

With a long history of printing and dyeing, the printing technology came out more than 1,700 years ago in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During Tang and Song Dynasties, dyeing cloth became more and more exquisite. Actually, blue calico printing and dyeing technology was simple and easy to perform: at first, the craftsman covered white cloth with an oil-paper print, and then scraped and printed with dye-resistant slurry made from lime, bean flour and water; then dyed with indigo when it was dry and finally scraped off the slurry after airing, and the printing was done. In the past, there were dye-houses of different size in every village and town in the north and south. As long as the folk craftsmen could afford a few vats, a couple of wooden sticks and a big roll stone, rolls of flowery cloth could be printed and dyed. The printed cloth is blue or/and white and elegant with patterns of flowers and birds, insects and fishes, ancient coins, fancies and frets, triangles and octagonals, etc.