Introduction to Suzhou Embroidery
By admin on 2014-12-16

Suzhou embroidery-one of China's four famous embrodiery styles, has a long history. It has been excavated in Auspicious Tower and Mount Tiger Tower made in Northern Song in the Five dynasties. Chinese embroidery was made in rather professional ways. It is recorded that Suzhou embroidery was very prosperous and the art reached perfection after Song dynasty. Each family bred silkworms, made embroidery. There appeared embroidery thread lanes, brocade mills, embroidery flower streets, etc., in the city. Daughters in rich families took it as a way of killing time. Suzhou embroidery reached its peak time in the Qing dynasty . 

High-quality Suzhou embroidery

Suzhou was called the "market of embroidery", famous both at home and abroad. Mountains, rivers, lakes, pavilions, flowers and birds, characters were all embroidered. Suzhou embroidery was largely demanded in the palace. Therefore wonderful and magnificent embroidery sprang up.

At the end of Qin dynasty and the beginning of Ming dynasty, Songtao, an expert at Chinese embroidery, renovated the traditional way of knitting. Flowers and birds, characters embroidered in new ways were very characteristic. The image of Lina, the queen of Italy absorbed the theory of chiaroscuro. Close attention was paid to the vividness of the images. Such embroidery was called "art embroidery" or "emulation embroidery". Songtao combined the previous art with his own experience, classified the way of knitting into 18 varieties, as recorded by Zhangsui in a book. Thus the way of knitting was systematized.

There are also the varieties of embroidery: single-side embroidery, double-side embroidery of different colors. Double-side embroidery, the specific style of suzhou embroidery can be appreciated from both sides. Pictures look exactly the same and wonderful on both sides. Special ways are used in knitting instead of knotting. There the end of silk threads are invisible. It is knitted in the right angle without piercing the other side. Both sides will present the same excellent effect.