Distinctive Rucheng Brain Shoes

　　 Brain shoe Several popular towns in Yanshou, Ling Xiu and Xiao Yuan, which are popular in Rucheng, have the most distinctive features of the brain shoes made in Yanshou township. The shape of the warped shoe is like a boat shaped, upturned and upturned shoe head, embroidered with shoe brain flower on the upper part of the shoe tip, and the heel of the shoe is not sutured. In Yanshou Township, there are two kinds of popular brain shoes: one is a warped cloth shoe, the other is a warped wooden board shoe. The wooden shoes are suitable for wearing on rainy days and suitable for women to wear.

The raw materials of the warped shoes are simple. They are mainly Zhangmu board, processed cowhide, black cloth, white cloth, old cloth, ramie line, tung oil and so on. The tools are saws, awl, pins, small hammers and so on.

The first process of making brain shoes is baking shells. A baking shell that is also divided into sole and upper. Make Sole When baking the shell, first paste a piece of soil paper on the door plank, cut some old cloth into small cloth pieces of different sizes and paste evenly onto the soil paper with the rice paste, slightly dry and then stick on one layer, the last layer is glued to the white cloth, stick to three layers, hammer and dry with a small hammer. Then cut according to the size and size of the required shoes.

The method of making shoe upper shell is a little more complicated. First, the white cloth is coated with rice paste, then the black cloth is pasted on the white cloth, pressed, pressed, and dried. After drying, press on the vamp to be used. The second procedure is the making of sole. Because of the material of shoe sole, the warped shoes are divided into wooden shoes and warped shoes. The sole is relatively simple. First, the camphor tree board is sawed into 2.5 centimeters of wood, then dried and sawed into sole according to the pattern of the sole. According to local Yao people, the camping boots made of camphor tree board are strong, light and deodorant, and prevent beriberi. The processing of wood shoes is very particular. The soles are shaped like the shape of the shoes, like the shape of a boat. The wooden board is sawed into a "wooden shape" at the foot arch of the sole. It is made of two wooden plates with half horseshoe shape. When it is put together, it becomes a complete wooden sole. After making shoes, the second half of the board can move up and down freely. This is the unique process of making wooden boards shoes. After processing the board sole, the processed cowhide will be cut out according to the sole pattern. Next, 1 to 2 pieces of cloth shoes are cut out and wrapped. The top of the cloth shoe is a piece of cloth wrapped with different colors according to age. If the shoes for young women are made of red cloth, old women are wrapped in green and blue cloth, while others are wrapped in white cloth. After finishing the package, use the ramie rope to tie the soles repeatedly, and then make the shoes on the board sole and cowhide, 1 to 2 layers of cloth shoes, and fold them up in sequence. They are fastened together with nails firmly on the front of the sole of the shoe. After the nails are fastened, special nails (one iron nail and two feet) are fastened on the reverse side of the wooden board shoes to avoid skid. In this way, the warped wood shoes are ready.

Then it's making vamp. Each shoe is made up of two vamp. After stitching the vamp, the clever woman is embroidered with colored lines to symbolize the flower and flower pattern of Fu and Lu on the vamp of the toe of the shoe. It is embroidered round with a few layers of red, green, white, pink and other silk threads. It is surrounded by one layer, the ring is buckled, and the shoes are decorated with red silk. Finally, the soles and vamp are stitched from the toe of the shoe, but Heel of shoes Do not stitch, after the shoes are done, use the tung oil to brush the sole and upper. Shoes made of tung oil will not leak, and it will not get wet on rainy days.

For thousands of years, the brain shoe has been spread in Rucheng and has been followed. It is already a cultural image of the Yao people in Rucheng.