I was taken aback by your descriptions. AT the end, I didn't know
whether to feel eager to get my hands on it, or leave it alone lest I
taunt myself with skills I'll never attain. grin I left your post
intact for those that might miss it the first time - all the little
computer problems these days.
Thank you so very much for sharing this. So much to learn, so little
time, so few masters to teach it.
Dianne
Lula wrote:
Another wonderful needlework book on Asian embroidery to share, this
volume:
Title: Threads of Light - Chinese Embroidery from Suzhou and the
photography of Robert Glenn Ketchum
Editor: Patrick Dowdey
Pub: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, L.A. 1999
ISBN: 0-930741-71-4
$45.00, paperback
If I thought Painting with a Needle was a great book about Asian, Korean
art embroidery, this book is even more stunning with its color pictures
of Chinese embroideries stitched as fine art paintings, replicating in
realistic stitching, the fine nature photography of Robert Glenn
Ketchum......it's a real WOW book.
This is not a technique book on how to stitch but a book filled with
beautiful color pictures showing the embroideries of the famous Suzhou
embroidery center interpreting fine landscape photographs into
breathtaking stitched masterpieces.......the pictures are worth the cost
of the book.....without reading the captions underneath, it's often
difficult to tell which picture is a photo and which is an embroidery.
Also illustrated are embroideries of Chinese scroll paintings and
calligraphy, all so perfectly stitched that the needlework is able to
replicate every brushstroke, watercolor techniques, including the soft
blurring of the ink and colors along the edges of the painted images.
I've never realized needlework like this could be done. But this book is
a real eye opener on how far a very skilled embroiderer using a fine
needle and silk thread with a creative mind can go, especially the
background history of the two women responsible for the "discovery" and
creation of the embroidery techniques currently being used......it's
utterly amazing......the Suzhou Center is also the home of the finely
stitched double sided embroideries many of us have heard about......this
new group of embroideries shows even more of these embroiderer's finely
honed skills.
The essays give background info on the history of Chinese embroidery,
history of the Suzhou school of needlework and the women involved in
creating the "newer" traditions of modern Chinese embroideries. The
chapters on the training of the Chinese women embroiderers is
fascinating.......we learn what requirements are needed to be chosen as
an embroiderer in this prestigious center and how the embroiderers are
continually educated and work together to maintain the impeccable high
standards of the needlework art projects they stitch.
The chapter on Technical Aspects of Suzhou embroidery explains many
interesting facts, including the color dyeing of the silk
yarns.......can't imagine having so many glorious colors to work with
but they do and dye what is needed among other technical background
info.
An interesting note about the stitching is the use of one very fine
strand of silk threaded onto a very fine, long thin, wirelike needle
with a tapered eye......there was a mention of using fine surgical
needles, as well as curved needles.
There is so much interesting information to absorb from the
essays........as we do needlework, we can understand some of the
feelings of these stitchers and what they're feeling in creating such
monumental works of art.
We understand the types of stitches and process of stitching but then we
are blown away by the way and what these women stitch. It's all
fascinating reading.
The results of their stitching is stunning in the realistic textures
they've created with the single strands of silk threads they
use.......you can feel the bark, crackling dried leaves, textures of the
plants, streams of water, even the cold texture of powdery snow on pine
needles.......the stitching is so very fine, so real, it's hard to
realize that you aren't looking at a fine oil or watercolor painting or
in this case a fine nature photograph but you are looking at a picture
of an embroidery........these needlework pictures look exactly as if
someone had painted or photographed the image.
An example of how fine the stitching is in the book is illusrated by
three embroidered kitten heads......it's as if you're looking at a real
kitten......you can feel the fur, the whiskers, see the glossy
eyes........this is the type of embroidery art I've always dreamed about
and never knew was possible to do! Now that I know it can be done,
doubt if I'll ever get to this type and level of needlework unless I
spend many more years studying, practicing stitch techniques, as well as
being able to use the same fine stitching materials of fine silk threads
on silk fabric........no matter, I'm glad to know more about this school
of Chinese embroidery and how it's done......otherwise I'd probably
imagine it was all done by celestial beings stitching with magical
threads.
This book is the third in a series of books published about textile art
from the Fowler Museum Textile Series - UCLA Museum of Cultural History
in conjunction with an exhibition of the textiles........I've been
fortunate in being able to read several other publications from this
Museum, each featuring a history of a particular textile as well as the
culture of the people creating these textiles.
Wrapped in Pride, featured Kente cloth from Ghana is one of the Fowler
Textile series...... the following two books are other publications from
the museum........A Quiet Spirit, a study of Amish Quilts.......Threads
of Identity, a book about the colorful woven textiles from Guatamala.
---
Lula
http://www.woolydream.com
Needlework Adventures