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.

E is for Embroidery

Today, when the letter at ABC Wednesday is E, I'd like to show you some more exquisite embroidery of the Kazakhs in Mongolia. 

Earlier this year, I introduced a Kazakh embroiderer of dream quilts. She and the four generations of her family live in the small town of Hovd, capital of the far western aimag (province) bearing the same name.

Deep in the interior, in the remotest areas of the aimag, our small group was warmly welcomed as honored guests into a number of family dwellings called gers.

Hovd, Mongolia, 2007

Also known as yurts, gers are nomadic tents typically made of white felt (heavy canvas) covering a wood lattice frame. First seen from the top of a hill, you are about to enter this ger with a colorful door.

 

Of the various ethnic peoples living harmoniously in Hovd, it is the Kazakhs who decorate their homes most handsomely. They typically cover the entire wall of their ger with intricately embroidered quilts and other adornments in brilliant colors. The designs are traditional, often with creative and unique adaptations.

This is the family that lives here, in the most splendid of gers. In stark contrast to the barren landscape outside, the interior was warm and bright.

The elder woman was happy to tell us about her various kinds of embroidery projects.

Towards the end of her presentation, she pulled out one of the more beautiful dream quilts I have seen. She told us she had embroidered it before her marriage to her husband. Her eyes told me she was struggling with the idea, but ultimately she told us she wanted to sell it. I bought it for her asking price, and here I sit holding it with her. Isn't it a beaut!?

photo taken by my good friend and travel mate Ruth Malloy

Here is a video of how this embroidery is done.

[MyWorld] Working with Waste

Meet Ann Wizer and her Invisible Sisters.

 Makati, 2011

Ann is an American visual artist, environmentalist and activist. Like me, she has lived in Asia for over 25 years. And she works with waste. In her art she started with natural debris and about a decade ago moved to industrial waste. Why? Because, she says, "there's just too much of it." I sure agree!

In 2008 Ann started her social enterprise in the Philippines: Invisible Sisters. This organization teaches marginalized women to crochet and knit fashion accessories from plastic waste materials. This provides poor mothers and grandmothers with skills, income and self-esteem.

And the consumer gets a colorful handcrafted one-of-a-kind must-have item that is not only creative and trendy but ecofriendly. How cool is that?

You can read more about this celebrated eco-warrior and her wonderful design intervention into poverty reduction and environmental protection at her website. And by the way, she is looking for partners and investors, so if the glove fits, do connect with her through her website.

I spoke to Ann and took these photos last Saturday when my friend Jill and I visited Art in the Park in Jaime Velasquez Park, Salcedo Village, Makati. After two decades in the world of designing, producing and marketing handcrafted products, I know a little about the effort and dedication that success  in this field requires. And so I greatly admire people with heart like Ann who use their creative talents to make our world a better place.

So with this post I join the community at MyWorld Tuesday.

Q is for Quilt

Since 1920 when the Soviet Union annexed Kazakhstan, many families have fled that country to Mongolia. Today, nearly 12% of the multi-cultural population of the western Mongolian aimag (province) of Hovd are Kazakhs. Traditional Kazakh culture here is quite intact and differs in various ways from the Mongolian. Most evidently, they still speak their own Turkic language, but also the Kazakh gers (yurts) are taller, wider, and more richly decorated than the Mongolian version.

Several times over our six days in Hovd we were treated to warm Kazakh hospitality and enjoyed up close views of family life in a ger.  In each of the Kazakh gers we entered, the entire round wall was covered with stunning embroidered tapestries called dream quilts.

Today I show you the wonderful quilt work of one Mongolian Kazakh woman.  In an earlier post here you can see her open her gate to welcome us into her ger. These photos with her various quilts were taken inside her ger.

Hovd, 2007

Cotton and wool threads are used for the extensive embroidery work and fine plush/velvet fabric is then used to make a border typically around three of the sides. Not shown in my photos is that the bottom edges of most quilts are left unfinished. There are two explanations  given. The first is  that life does not end and this is expressed by leaving room for a continuation of  the embroidery. The second, more mundane reason, is that since the bottom is tucked under a rug, table or bed anyway, why  finish it?

If you're into quilting, the colorful details are much better seen with photos enlarged:

In this final photo you can see the quilter with her mother, daughter and grandson - four generations of Mongolian Kazakhs.

Linking at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday where you will find others playing with topics starting with the letter Q.

Hardworking Hands

Guizhou, 2006

This silversmith, creating exquisite silver accessories to be worn by Miao minority women in Guizhou, has his own clever way to "mass produce" his handiwork.

Posting at Mary's Sepia Scenes, where you will find links to other interesting sepia images.

Organic Indigo

Today we take blue jeans for granted. But before the time synthetic dyes could be made to color cotton yarn, blue fabric was not always so easy to get.

Here in the poor mountain province of Guizhou featured earlier, minority women still extract natural indigo from the plant Indigofera like it was done before the turn of the 20th century. The indigo is used to color their beautiful ethnic costumes and other household textiles.

This ethnic Miao woman is in the process of extracting the indigo blue from the leaves... And I couldn't help wonder how long it would take for her hands to turn back to their natural skin color.

Guizhou, 2006

These images are posted for Alphabe Thursday hosted by Jenny where the prompt was the color INDIGO. Click on the link to see how others posted for the theme.