Step One: Raising Silkworms for Silk Production

This step involves obtaining the most fundamental raw material, emphasizing natural cultivation.
• Core Process: Through meticulous rearing of silkworms, high-quality cocoons are produced. The cocoon is formed by a continuous filament of silk protein (fibroin), which serves as the starting point for all silk textile crafts.
• Key Points: It is essential to control temperature, humidity, and hygiene, while providing an ample supply of fresh mulberry leaves. The quality of the cocoons directly determines the strength, luster, and length of the silk threads in subsequent stages.

Step Two: Silk Reeling

This step is the industrial or manual process of extracting continuous silk threads from the cocoons.
• Core Process: Selected cocoons are soaked in hot water to dissolve the sericin (a natural protein gel) surrounding the filaments, loosening the strands. Multiple filaments are then combined, drawn out, and wound—either mechanically or by hand—to form a single thread of raw silk with a certain thickness and strength.
• Key Points: Precise control of water temperature, reeling speed, and the number of cocoons combined is required to obtain uniform, strong, and lustrous raw silk.

Step Three: Silk Thread Processing and Preparation

This step prepares the raw silk for dyeing and refinement, transforming it into "softened thread" suitable for velvet flower making.
• Core Process: The raw silk undergoes degumming (complete removal of sericin), refining, bleaching, and combing. After degumming, the thread becomes softer, more lustrous, and has better dye absorption. Subsequently, multiple strands may be plied and twisted as needed to achieve a specific thickness.
• Key Points: The processed thread should attain a state of being "softened, uniform, and clean"—meaning it is soft in texture, even in thickness, and pure in color, laying a solid foundation for even dyeing.

Step Four: Dyeing

This step imparts the final color to the silk threads and is crucial in defining the color style of the artwork.
• Core Process: Using natural or chemical dyes, the prepared silk threads are dyed under strictly controlled conditions of temperature, time, and pH. Traditional velvet flowers often pursue elegant and subdued tones, so the dyeing process relies heavily on experienced craftsmanship to manage color saturation and depth.
• Key Points: High color fastness, even and translucent coloration, and no color variation within the same batch of threads are essential to ensure the purity and uniformity of the petal colors in the final product.

Step Five: Creating Velvet Strips (Rong Tiao)

This is the most core and distinctive technical stage in velvet flower making, transforming flat silk threads into three-dimensional building blocks.
• Core Process: The dyed silk threads undergo a series of meticulous handcrafting steps: "Splitting Velvet" (separating into fine strands), "Forming Strips" (twisting into velvet strips using copper wire), "Singeing Velvet" (flame-smoothing to set the shape), and "Tapering" (trimming the ends into specific shapes). This results in individual, smooth, compact, cylindrical velvet strips, which serve as the basic units for shaping all petals and leaves.
• Key Points: The thickness, density, smoothness, and uniformity of the velvet strips directly determine the final petal texture, luster, and realism.

Step Six: Assembling into a Flower

This is the artistic assembly process from components to finished product, giving the work its form and soul.
• Core Process: According to the floral design, the prepared velvet strips (which may have been trimmed into various shapes) are shaped into individual components such as petals, leaves, and stamens through techniques like bending, twisting, layering, and bonding. These components are then "assembled into a flower" according to the principles of natural growth and aesthetic composition, forming complete flowers, branches, or hairpins.
• Key Points: Emphasis is placed on the rhythm of layout, spatial awareness, and vividness, imitating the natural posture of flowers with clear primary and secondary elements, ultimately presenting a lifelike and artistically beautiful three-dimensional creation.