December 8, 2011

E is for Embroidery (again)

Decorating textile by hand with needle and thread may be a dying handicraft. Machines can do most of that embellishing work today faster and cheaper.

But in the Chinese southwestern mountain province of Guizhou I still saw a lot of amazing hand embroidery - often on attractive traditional ethnic Miao costumes that I must one day show you.

Today I share with you this intricate silk embroidered bell tower wall hanging that was being prepared for display at a local trade show in the provincial capital Guiyang. [Better seen enlarged, of course.]



Guizhou, 2006

If you are partial to exquisite embroidery, you can see my earlier posts about embroideries I found in Mongolia here and here.

The letter is E at Alphabe-Thursday, so hop on over and see what E topics others have found to post.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are so elegant, fancy, and intricate looking embroidery work! Love the mix of colors too.

Steph said...

I love the fine Miao embroidery and the Yi embroidery as well. You were close by as I live in the neighboring province. The Kazahk embroidery is lovely too. I'm envious you were able to visit Mongolia.

Judie said...

Francisca, I watched a woman enbroider some fabric in a film that was made in Saudi Arabia. It was soooo painstaking that I was overwhelmed with what it took to create one finished piece. Thank you so much for your wonderful post.

DeniseinVA said...

It looks stunning and it must be absolutely breathtaking to actually see it.

Pondside said...

This makes my efforts at needlework look quite rudimentary! Such detail and colour - gorgeous.

cieldequimper said...

Patience is the word. It is one thing I lack.

Andy said...

This is absolutely stunning. Your photos brought out the best.

biebkriebels said...

It looks beautiful, nothing can do better than handcraft.

Elisa said...

It´s wonderful Francisca!
Greetings
Elisa, in Argentina

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

What an exquisite piece of hand embroidery.

Thanks for sharing.

FlowerLady

Andrea said...

That is amazing and so beautiful. I am also fascinated by the unsymmetrical shapes of the individual pieces joined together! The Chinese are known in history to be very artistic people, at least they are preserving the embroidery tradition. Did you get yourself one piece like that?

Anonymous said...

The colors in this are amazing! What a wonderful piece!

Cezar and Léia said...

I love the intensive colors and so beautiful design!They are very creative and talented!
** vous êtes Belge!!!! How cool!
bises
Léia

anitamombanita said...

The piece in the first photo is simply exquisite!!

Susan Anderson said...

Simply gorgeous!

=)

Susan Anderson said...

(Or maybe I should have said, "Exquisite"...)

;)

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Beautiful Kaleidoscope-like patterns. I can barely imagine the talent and patience that goes into creating something this lovely.

Anonymous said...

Wow - it's all stunning!

Lola said...

Superb ‘E’ post – so beautiful!

Have a great weekend & look forward to *seeing* you soon.

Here’s mine

Melbourne Australia Photos said...

I have tremendous admiration for the patience these people have in creating these craft pieces.
Great photos!

EG CameraGirl said...

I love embroidery (used to do a LOT of it) so you can post it every time E comes around...if you show us new photos. :))

Elisa said...

My dear Francisca,
Not even a mention in Elle. I have to recognize that it was a little dissapointing :(
My best regards
Elisa, in Argentina

Gattina said...

No machine can replace such a work ! Beautiful ! In Morocco I saw also still a lot of handmade things like the famous carpets for example.

Carole M. said...

I used to do a lot of embroidery (under stitching label); I was really taken with this post and wonderful vibrancy.

The Poet said...

Hello.
WoW! I'm in no way shape or form qualified to even sew a button, but I know quality when I see it. This is magnificent! I wonder how long it would take to make something like that? The detail, the colors, the skill...I'm in awe of these talents.
Excellent post!
Thanks for sharing.

For ref:
Eleven Roses And You

Cheryl D. said...

That is absolutely stunning! I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into doing that by hand!

Kaori said...

Wow, that must take so much time to finish! Handmade crafts are so special and I hope it never dies out. The photo of it spread out is stunning!

Unknown said...

wOW,these are beautiful. Very colourful too.

jennyfreckles said...

That's magnificent; the colours sing. There must be hours of work in it.

Unknown said...

So much work. Great patterns!

Vicki/Jake said...

Way late visit...but how beautiful! Can't imagine the hours of work that went into this. Pure art....

Jenny said...

I am so glad you shared these Elegant Embroideries....

Extraordinary!!

A+