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One archive, many ways in.

Browse by geography, making process, motif or date. Every path leads back to permanent textile records.

A warm imagined cloth shop with fabric shelves, a wooden table and a handloom

A new way to wander · 云上布店

Make yourself
at home.

Take a cloth off the shelf. Unroll it. Imagine what it could become.

Explore our virtual shop

Motif archive

Read the cloth through its signs.

Compare recurring flowers, characters, creatures, grids and celestial marks across many textile records — with symbolism kept separate from uncertainty.

Open Motif Archive →

Atlas index

By region

China6 records Chongming6 records Jiangnan9 records Nantong17 records North China1 records Shandong2 records Shanghai1 records

Atlas index

By technique

Blue resist printing / Lan Yin Hua Bu (蓝印花布)8 records Colour-woven dot texture1 records Decorative printing2 records Double-sided woven pattern1 records Figured weave5 records Hand printing3 records Hand-joined household textile2 records Handwoven homespun40 records Multicolour folk printing4 records Picked weave / tiaohua (挑花)1 records Picked-dot weave2 records Plain weave4 records Plant-ash-associated yarn preparation1 records Supplementary-weft details1 records Treadle figured weave2 records Waffle / honeycomb weave1 records Yarn-dyed weave12 records

Atlas index

By pattern

Bird and flower1 records Blue-and-white flowing marks1 records Brick lattice1 records Butterfly2 records Child figure2 records Chrysanthemum2 records Chrysanthemum medallion1 records Curling auspicious motifs1 records Curving dragon1 records Dark patterned field1 records Diagonal woven lines1 records Diamond lattice1 records Dotted diamond lattice1 records Dotted folk borders1 records Dotted geometric lattice3 records Double Happiness / 囍1 records Dragon1 records Dragon-scale grid1 records Fine ant-like dotted details2 records Fine check6 records Fine multicolour stripe5 records Floral medallions1 records Four Seasons dot grid1 records Four Seasons flowers1 records Geometric blocks4 records Geometric border2 records Gourd1 records Interlocking woven blocks1 records Larger overlaid grid lines7 records Little plum blossom1 records Lotus flower1 records Lotus pond2 records Meteor / lightning marks1 records Mottled woven field1 records Mountain-like forms1 records Multicolour plaid3 records Peacock1 records Pearl motif1 records Peony bouquet6 records Pepper-eye / 胡椒眼纹1 records Pepper-seed dots1 records Phoenix2 records Phoenix medallion1 records Picked coloured dots1 records Plum blossom1 records Purple floral blocks6 records Qilin bringing a child1 records Raised waffle grid1 records Reed mat / Lu Xi Wen (芦席纹)1 records Reed-like grasses1 records Rice-grain speckles1 records Rising sun motif1 records Scrolling flowers1 records Scrolling vines2 records Shepherd’s purse flower1 records Small check2 records Snowflake / feather yarn effect1 records Spring ripple / Qingbo texture1 records Starlight dot weave1 records Vase2 records Wooden Comb Back Pattern / Mu Shu Bei Wen (木梳背纹)1 records

Atlas index

By period

1970s1 records 20th century — under review2 records c. 1940s–1950s3 records c. 1940s–1960s4 records c. 1950s2 records c. 1950s–1960s6 records c. 1950s–1970s3 records c. 1960s1 records c. 1960s–1970s10 records c. 1970s–early 1980s1 records c. late 1940s–early 1950s1 records c. late 1960s–1970s1 records Early PRC to c. 1960s–1970s1 records Late Qing1 records Late Republican era1 records Mid-20th century4 records

One archive, many ways in.

Make yourselfat home.

Read the cloth through its signs.

By region

By technique

By pattern

By period

Make yourself
at home.