"Two guys in XVIII century weaved Slutsk sashes, and now no one can"

Head of the Ancient History Museum Barys Lazuka has been trying to make at least synthetic copies of the Slutsk sashes since long ago, in order to sell them to tourists. However, no Belarusian enterprise can produce even a copy!

"In the XVIII century, two guys who were taught how to do it, sat at the weaver's looms and weaved about 300 sashes a year, with golden and silver threads. Now, in the beginning of the XXI century, we cannot get even close to this!" — Barys Lazuka emotionally comments the situation.

Yes, indeed! Bahdanovich didn't know that it had been men, not women, who weaved the famous sashes, as it was hard work. Even the modern weaving machines at the Belarusian enterprises cannot do it.

"They can do anything, but jacquard fabrics can be made only on the machine which is 80 years old", - Barys Lazuka gets surprised after visiting the enterprise "Magatex" in Mahileu.

Even in this case, the sash will not fully correspond with the real one. As it will be made...by parts. The "head" and the "field" will be made separately and then just sewn together.

And here we are facing a problem. The machine needs "ancient" punch-cards in the quantity of 8 thousand, in order to weave one sash. If they are laid down on the road, they will cover 2,5 kilometers. 

"We suggested our variants. It is very interesting for us to participate in such project. However, we cannot repeat the Slutsk sash totally. The equipment does not allow working with such raw materials with high intensity, with coloured raw materials. We have such peculiarity of manufacturing, this is why we cannot make an exact copy of the sash fabric", - they say in "Magatex" to Euroradio.

As for the enterprise "Stuzhka", also in Mahileu, they can weave jacquard fabrics but the width of their ribbon will be less than the width of the sash.

"Theoretically, there is such an opportunity if we adjust the settings of our equipment. But it is not very likely. Our ribbons can be jacquard of weaved, but they are narrow".

In Rechytsa, they say that they can make a Slutsk sash, but it will be... a terry one.

No enterprise capable of repeating the Slutsk sash has been found in Belarus.

"We cannot repeat the sash in our conditions. We are speaking not even about the exact copy".

Are only the Turks and the Chinese capable of hard work like this?