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Hand Embroidery Designs | Jacobean flower stitch | Stitch and Flower-131 Store: A five-thousand year old legend has it that an imperial Chinese princess discovered the secret of the silk fiber. A silkworm cocoon accidentally dropped into a cup of tea, and as she retrieved it, it dissolved to reveal a shimmering filament strong enough to be used for textiles. And so the great silk industry was born. Just as valued as the silk fiber were the techniques to apply that fiber decoratively to cloth, also perfected by the Chinese. Needles of bronze, ivory, and bone have been found in Chinese archeological sites dated around 3000 BC, which implies that embroidery probably existed at that time. The crown jewel of Chinese embroidery is the satin stitch, perfectly suited to display silk's beauty. Refinement of technique is necessary, for the perfectly executed satin-stitch motif must appear smooth, flat, and seamless -- like satin itself! Exquisite shaded effects are possible thanks to a satin-stitch relative, the long-and-short stitch. It's likely that the backstitch and stem stitch originated in China, and a certainty that the Pekinese stitch did too. Stitchers around the world have embraced Chinese-inspired designs (referring to them as “Chinoiserie“), which experienced periodic revivals in bursts of activity whenever new exploration or some innovation in transportation brought increased trade with Asia. One particular American take on silk embroidery were “mourning pictures.“ Beginning around the time of the death of George Washington in 1799, these personal expressions were stitched on silk fabric (with the faces of the subjects painted) in a technique called needlepainting, achieved by the long-and-short stitch. The designs featured figures languishing by monuments and urns in pretty pastoral settings with weeping willows. When silk was scarce, embroiderers learned to make do with cotton threads. A world apart from opulent silk work was the simple cotton-on-cotton stitchery popular in America and affordable to all from the late 19th Century onward. You can see the same satin-stitch technique, invented for silk, worked with cotton floss on Flight of Fancy's butterfly in the Encyclopedia Of Needlework by Donna Kooler. Today, cotton embroidery is still practiced as a lively folk art in many areas of the world, from Mexico and Central America where wild colors decorate everyday garments (and attract tourist dollars), to southeast Asia, where the Hmong people of Cambodia embroider stories of recent political conflict on their fabulous quilt-like wall hangings. Article Source: [ Silk and Cotton Hand Embroidery Noel by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license () Artist: FaceBook: Twitter: Google : StichandFlower Pinterest:
