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Clever photographer, Nancy Fox, recently returned
from a tour of mainland China. A visit to an
embroidery factory in Suzhou was high on her list of
places to see. She was not disappointed. When she
arrived, the artists were hard at work producing
these paintings. They readily consented to let Nancy
photograph them while they worked.
They work indoors using indirect light sources to
illuminate their canvases, which are mounted on
frames, much like the ones quilters might use. For
inspiration and information they use photographs,
print illustrations, or even other paintings in
developing their works of art.
The embroidery pieces are considered great works of
art and many take a year to a year and a half to
complete. They sell for thousands of dollars. Small
pieces are available that sell for less but the big,
intricate ones are very expensive, as they should
be, considering the time involved in completing
them.
Nancy wished she could ask the artist how much time
it took for her to produce this spectacular
landscape. The silken threads she used were so fine
and the stitches were so small -- it appears to be
an incredibly time-consuming process.
An interesting note: there are some artists in the
factory that do two-sided embroidery pieces that are
different on each side. An example is one piece that
had a portrait of Princess Diana on one side and
Prince Charles on the other. The likeness of Diane
and Charles was amazing. It was done on a single
piece of fabric and both sides were completed at the
same time! The guide explained that the technique
will remain a secret. Imagine putting your needle
through the fabric and creating two entirely
different pictures at the same time.
A note on Suzhou as a tourist destination: Suzhou, a
historic city in China, is considered the pearl of
the Yangtze Delta. It is what they call a small city
with a population of about a million and a half
people. Many wealthy retired mandarins of the Ming
and Qing dynasties spent their last years in Suzhou
because it is such a beautiful area.
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