To create this hairpin, waste-silk was fashioned into a bunch of bright red artificial flowers and green leaves. The material is made from silk fibres in a non-woven structural process that made use of leftover raw silk not suitable for reeling and spinning. After undergoing the process of boiling, rinsing, beating and drying on a bamboo mat, the final product becomes a thin sheet of silk, smooth as a piece of paper, and known as ‘silk paper’ or ‘floss sheet.’ After dyeing, the fabric would be treated with a sizing agent to promote adhesion. This could be agar-agar, isinglass (fish-glue), or starch obtained from wheat or rice, depending on what was available locally.
Red artificial flowers such as these were widely worn during festivals and special occasions like weddings, as red is an auspicious colour representing happiness and good fortune. To make such realistic silk flowers, craftsmen would sometimes incorporate dried natural plant materials to create the stamens, and use special pressing tools to imprint the leaves with natural-looking veins.