Chinese Embroidery

China is full of beautiful art and so much to choose from including traditional Embroidery which slowly is becoming a lost art. Many embroideries are now made by computerized machines still beautiful in many cases but seldom original or handmade. In the countryside as well as some large cities you can still find women making embroidery pieces by hand without patterns to follow. Pictured here is a hand made silk embroidery that I purchased in a remote village of China outside of LiJiang.  It is a family venture for a few of the women in their home. One piece I saw was 10 feet wide and 5 feet high commissioned by a hotel. It took 6 people 3 years to make it. The piece shown here took the woman almost three months to make this piece so you can see why the art is becoming rare. She had hundreds of silk threads that they dyed themselves with a fantastic array of colors. When a light is shined on it the colors jump out at you as if they were alive. There is also the two sided embroidery that can be seen at the Embroidery Institute in Suzhou outside of Shanghai. They embroider both sides at one time making the same pattern on both sides at the same time. It takes six years of learning to do this type of embroidery and of course is very expensive. For more traditional Chinese art continue to read my blog as well as earlier stories that I have written. I continue to visit China year after year having made over 50 trips in 25 years and never fail to find new art to bring home.  Click on the photo for a full screen view!