Silk Lineage is a small studio in Guang'an, Sichuan, where Chinese silk flowers are still wound by hand.

My grandmother, Mrs. Wu, is eighty-nine. She has been making Chanhua and Ronghua since she was a girl — winding dyed mulberry silk, strand by strand, around paper and wire until a flower appears. She taught me. Altogether I spent six years learning at her side.

After university I moved to a city and took an office job. It was a good life on paper, but it was missing the one thing that had always made me happy. So I went back to the craft and started Silk Lineage to keep it — and to hand it on.

Here you will find tutorials for making your own silk flowers, and a quiet look at how the work is done. A simple Chanhua flower takes four to six hours. A complex one can take a month.

Shop handmade pieces and beginner kits: silklineage.com