A visit to the embroidery mueseum and factory!

Yesterday we went to the local embroidery museum and factory. Wow, what a rich heritage Nina has, and how proud she can be of the craftsmanship of her people. Hunan is one of the provinces of China where embroidery is a traditional art. I don't even want to say craft, because it is a true art. Amazing. Inspiring. I could never do it. Never.
It was pretty hard to take pictures of some of the pieces, but I will post them anyway and explain what we saw.

This first one is hard to see because it was behind glass - it was huge. It took 15 people 18 months to finish it. Right next to it was one a little bit smaller, and that one took 6 people 12 months to complete. Man, I'm happy when I can get my laundry done in one day, because I hate for it to drag out. I cannot imagine working on the same thing for years (or would that be called PARENTING???). What is so neat is that this particular piece was double sided (and this is only done in Hunan). What it means is that you see the exact same image on both sides of the very transparent silk fabric. No stray stiches on the back. None. And all of this is done by hand. Also, the front and the back are done at the same time. They make these perfect pictures and can't even see them! Totally blows my mind. Yes, the style of a lot of these pictures may be foreign to me, but the work that goes into them is just mind-boggling.

This picture shows a duplicate piece of President Roosevelt. This was given to him a long time ago (I'm really sorry guys, I still have no clue about all these presidents and when they lived... I think it was during the 2nd world war, but don't beat up on me if I'm totally off - and Mike is snoozing already, so I can't ask him!), and the original is in some museum in the US. Doesn't it look just like a painting. Well, it's not, it's all embroidered.

This is how the work in progress looks like. On the silk fabric there is a faint outline or a faint print of the picture. Not very detailed. And then they have an actual fotograph next to it that they work by. The silk thread that is being used is very very fine, and so are the needles. These women have to have very good eyes, and they are only allowed to work in natural light.

On both sides of this big room are work stations for the women. Their fingers pull the thread through the silk very swiftly, but the progress seems so painfully slow.

Mike really liked this picture. Daphne, our guide, told us that she has watched them work on it for several years already! And they are far from being done.

To be continued...

*****Deutsche Version: www.chinagirlswitzerland.blogspot.com Titel: Stickerei Museum *****