缂絲工藝 Kesi (Chinese Silk Tapestry Weaving)

Kesi is the essence of traditional silk art in China. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the royal family has monopolized its production. Kesi was used to weave the emperors’ and empresses’ apparels, imperial images and famous paintings. Because of the extremely meticulous weaving process and its rich and elegant character, Kesi is known as “an inch of Kesi and an inch of gold” and “the Holy of Weaving”.
Kesi adopts a weaving method that passes through the warp and breaks the weft, which makes the work look like being carved and engraved, and has a rich double-sided three-dimensional effect. The Kesi craftsmanship was already extremely superb in the Tang Dynasty, when craftsmen were able to use a variety of valuable materials such as pure gold and silver threads, peacock feathers to weave Kesi. Moreover, the strength of Kesi is much higher than that of any silk handicrafts, therefore Kesi is the best preserved work among all the silk art that has survived to this day.
The nobility of Kesi comes from its need of huge man-hours and meticulous techniques with thousands of threads. As an ancient craftsmanship, Kesi has its own special loom that cannot be replaced by modern machines. Craftsmen must not only master the weaving skills, but also understand painting knowledge in order to combine rich colors with sophisticated techniques. Even a small handtowel-sized work of the highest quality contains thousands of gradient colors, often requires the exchange of tens of thousands of shuttles, and several months for a senior craftsman to complete.
In 2006, Kesi was selected into the first National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In 2009, Kesi as Chinese silk tapestry weaving craftsmanship was selected as the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage.
缂絲是中國傳統絲綢藝術品中的精華，自宋元以來一直爲帝王禦用，生産被皇室壟斷, 常用以織造帝後服飾、禦真（禦容像）和摹缂名人書畫。缂絲品因織造過程極其細致，品格富貴高雅，古有“一寸缂絲一寸金”“織中之聖”之稱。
缂絲采用“通經斷緯”的織法，形成花紋邊界，具有猶如雕琢镂刻的效果，且富雙面立體感。缂絲工藝極爲精湛，在唐代已登峰造極。一幅上等宮廷缂絲作品，已能使用上純金線，純銀線，孔雀羽毛等多種名貴的材質進行交彙缂織，巧奪天工。而且缂絲的強度遠遠高于任何的絲綢類工藝品，曆代存留至今的絲綢藝術品，屬缂絲保存的最爲完好。
缂絲之高貴，因其耗費工時巨大，以萬縷千絲成其工巧，“如婦人一衣，終歲方成”。缂絲作爲一門古老的手工藝術，有其專用的織機，而且現代機器無法替代。工匠既要掌握缂絲的織造技法，也要懂得畫理知識，才能使豐富的色彩與娴熟的技法相結合。僅一方巾大小的上等作品，就包含上千種漸進色，往往需要換數以萬計的梭子，需高級技師耗費數月時間方可完工。
2006，蘇州缂絲織造技藝入選第一批國家級非物質文化遺産名錄；2009，缂絲又作爲中國蠶桑絲織技藝入選世界非物質文化遺産。