The silk embroidery Summer Night is based on an oil painting by a Chinese oil painting artist, Wang Ke Wei. It depicts a group of ladies take a tour around a lake on a summer night in Tang Dynasty. The embroidery artist applied random stitches with overlap and crisscross of different colours. .The smooth texture of skin achieved by using very fine split silk threads. The embroidery artist used different directions of stitches in the lake, lotus leaves and trees, thus to create different layers that helped the main body of this silk embroidery, ,the ladies, stand out in the viewer's sight. It is such a beautifully embroidered silk artwork that we can almost feel the fragrance of the lotus flowers and the moon light when watching it.
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Both archaeological evidence and references in ancient Chinese literature show the existences of rhinoceroses in ancient China. In Shang and Han Dynasties, Chinese people made many rhino-shaped wine vessels. The silk embroidery below is based on a bronze rhinoceros unearthed in 1936 in Shanxi, China. It is a National treasure and is now kept in the National Museum of China. The bronze rhinoceros was used as a vessel to contain rice wine. On its back,, there is a cap which can be opened to fill in rice wine. Embroidering solid sculptures requires a different kind of embroidery skill than the other art forms. Traditional plain stitches were used to create the base. As eyes move upwards to the upper layers, short and deft stitches were made to add more layers of colors to simulate the rust on the bronze.
This silk embroidery is based on an oil painting by a Chinese artist who is expert at blending traditional Chinese art with Western oil painting. It depicts Yang Yuhuan, one of the emperor's beloved concubines in Tang Dynasty. Random stitches are adeptly used and silk threads of different colors are well mixed to simulate the rich colors of the opera dancer's costume.
China is the first country in the world that discovered the use of silk. Silkworms were domesticated as early as 5000 years ago. The production of silk thread and fabrics gave rise to the art of embroidery...
