刺绣布艺专区Embroidery and Cloth

1. Page introduction

Embroidery and Cloth

A needle goes through the cloth, and comes back

After a few thousand repeats, the pattern is no longer on the cloth. It has grown into it. Embroidery takes more time than almost any other craft, and it shows a person's temperament more clearly: a hurried hand cannot stitch evenly, a lazy one never finishes.

This page has two parts. One is Su embroidery, which came out of embroidery rooms and imperial workshops and is governed by rules and stitch types. The other is folk embroidery, which came out of kitchens and lamp-lit beds, and is governed by wishes and daily life. Both use needle and thread, and they travel very different roads.

2. Su embroidery

History: Su embroidery is centered on Suzhou and is named together with the Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan styles as one of the four great schools. By the Song dynasty, Suzhou was already described as a place where every household embroidered; in the Ming and Qing dynasties imperial workshops were set up there and the division of work grew finer. Around the end of the Qing dynasty, Shen Shou brought light, shadow and perspective into embroidery, and a stitched surface began to show gradual changes of tone, close to a photograph.

The process: The main steps are design, stretching, tracing, selecting threads, splitting silk, stitching, un-stretching and mounting. Splitting silk is where skill shows most: one thread can be divided into more than ten strands, and the softness of a cat's whisker, a fish fin or a feather depends on that fineness. There are dozens of stitches. Flat stitch aims at evenness, random stitch at life, layered stitch at smooth transition.

Patterns and their meanings: Traditional Su subjects carry meanings. A branch of flowers with a bird stands for prosperity and good news. Two fish stand for surplus year after year. Mandarin ducks and paired lotus stand for a couple. Patterns come in pairs that answer each other, and a single isolated motif is avoided. Little space is left empty, but what is left empty is left on purpose: a bare branch of white space is room for wind.

Restraint: Su embroidery is judged by four words: flat, even, bright and smooth. On the back of a finished piece you can barely find a thread end. In Chinese craft, hiding the seams counts as a form of discipline; the skill sits where you cannot see it. Double-sided embroidery goes further: the same pattern on both faces, every stitch hidden, nothing showing when the piece is turned. It is restraint taken to its limit.

3. Folk embroidery

Where it lives: Folk embroidery is scattered across the country: pillow ends and insoles in Shaanxi and Shanxi, split-thread and tin embroidery among the Miao in Guizhou, aprons and curtain borders in the water towns of the south. It did not come from workshops. It came from heated brick beds and kitchen tables, passed on by word of mouth and paper patterns, with each generation changing a small part of the last.

The process: Cotton thread on hand-woven cloth, with simple direct stitches: flat stitch, chain stitch, seed stitch and appliqué. Seed stitch wraps thread around the needle into small knots, which gives a grainy surface that wears well and survives washing. Appliqué cuts cloth shapes first and stitches them down, so colors stay clear and work goes fast. Folk pieces do not aim at fine stitches. They aim at bright color, readable shapes and cloth that holds up.

Patterns and their meanings: Pomegranate for many children, bat for good fortune, fish for surplus, peony for prosperity, tiger hats to protect a child, the five poisons to ward off evil. These patterns are not decoration. They are wishes too plain to say out loud, written in thread on everyday pieces: a jacket worn often, a pair of insoles, a pouch kept close. Each piece carries one sentence.

Why asymmetry still works: Folk pieces are often not quite symmetrical, because the hand does not follow a drawing; it follows a thought. That irregularity is exactly what makes them warmer than palace work. You can see the hand, and you can see how the maker felt that day.

4. Six steps of an embroidered piece

1. Draw the design on paper, fix the size and colors, and make a small sample for complex scenes.
2. Stretch the cloth on a frame, straighten the weave. Too loose and it wrinkles; too tight and it distorts.
3. Trace the design onto the cloth in pale ink or white powder, with lines the stitches can cover.
4. Choose threads by layer and split each thread to the thickness the image needs.
5. Stitch from the darkest tone upward, building light in layers, broad shapes before detail.
6. Take the piece off the frame, press it, trim the threads at the back, then mount or sew it into an object.