Gu Xiaoxian's•Thesis 2

On How to Appreciate Su Embroidery from a Professional Perspective
Abstract:With the great improvement of people's living standards, people seek for a richer spiritual life. As more and more people tend to buy artworks, Su embroidery becomes popular. Many people will choose Su embroidery for the decoration at home. Most people choose Su embroidery according to their personal favorite patterns. Some people collect embroidery artwork because they are deeply attracted by its exquisite embroidery skills. There are many types of Su embroidery with complex craftsmanship. How do we select the most delicate and valuable Su embroidery artwork to collect from so many Su embroidery products? The answer is in the embroidery process of Su embroidery which will be analyzed in this thesis.
 Key words：Su embroidery   Appreciation   Color
 Just like paintings, the first thing to see in a Su embroidery artwork is a sense of unity. The proportions of the pattern and the layout of the pattern will not be coordinated, if one deliberately narrows the embroidery area to reduce working hours. As is known to all, Su embroidery is basically a craft of copying some ancient paintings, oil paintings, contemporary paintings or landscape photos. As the current embroidery workers rarely has the creativity to make original artwork, they mostly follow the original manuscript. The process of using various embroidery technology and colors in Su embroidery to best show the original work is called re-creation.
 Secondly, pay attention to the fineness of an embroidery work. Here, I want to emphasize that fineness does not mean beauty. The finer an embroidery piece is, the more time an embroidery worker needs to embroider. The price will go up accordingly. But it does not mean that it gives the full play to the aesthetics. In the work, there is usually a distinction between near and far, the primary and the secondary, the virtual and the real, etc. In terms of the craft of Su embroidery, one can better show the primary and the secondary part through the thickness of the silk thread, the density of the embroidery and the distinction of color. For example, one needs to use four or six silk threads in the underpainting to form a stronger sense of shape when embroidering the main part of a 40 * 60 full embroidery work. The thickness of thread depends on the size of the work. Finer silk threads are applied in a smaller size of work. One may use one or two silk threads to add more color in the work, using color to show more details and refine the work. Instead of embroidering with too thick threads to blindly pursuit texture, one need to moderately use the thick or the fine threads. In a delicate embroidery artwork, there are more than one layers of embroidery. It requires multi-layers of refinement to best show the texture, exquisiteness and beauty of a work.
 Thirdly, pay attention to the color. Usually, the color of primary part is more colorful and vivid than the secondary one to highlight the main body. It has not only wonderful and bright colors, but also the environmental color produced by the surroundings. Whether this work is a masterpiece or not depends on the integration of with these color. Without the integration of those colors, the work even with many colors is still deficient in the use of color. In painting, as long as two colors get together, there will be a middle color. According to the depth of fusion, there will be different types of middle color. This is totally different from embroidery. It needs one or more middle colors to transmit two relatively distinctive colors in embroidery. Therefore, accommodating color is very complex process of craft. With careful observation for the embroidery, it is easy to see the confluence of different types of colors in the color blocks of the work. Usually, the color-matching become more and more simple and elegant and the contrast of light and dark gets weaker from far and near in the layout of the work. But it is not enough to use only the colors in the monochromatic system to express the charm of the work.
 Fourth, one has to notice the stitch length, which is the distance between the previous stitches and the next ones. One may not simply think the shorter stitch length the better it is. Instead, the short stitch length may manifest the roughness of the line and make the work less glossy and increase the cost of time to produce. The stitch length has to do with the patterns and colors of the embroidered work. One has to shorten the stitch length when there are many patterns with small color blocks. Usually the stitch length between 0.5-0.8 cm is moderate. If stitch length is too long, the embroidery is less flexible and it is not easy to highlight details in the work.
 Fifth, now there is a work featured with virtual-actual combination that are very popular among the public. On the one hand, its modern pattern is more suitable for the modern style decoration of families. On the other hand, the virtual- actual combined embroidery saves much time and cost. It not only meets the consumer’s love for Su embroidery, but also doesn’t cost too much money to buy high-quality Su embroidery. It has more advantage in price than the masterpiece mentioned before. Some people may ask, isn't Su embroidery the more expensive the better? In fact, the answer is no. When choosing the virtual-actual combined embroidery artwork, one needs to consider its embroidery area. A large work may only have a small piece of embroidery or few stiches. The stitches and embroidery area are also the key to determining the price. When appreciating virtual-real combined embroidery work, one should first see whether there is a flexible conversion of the thickness of the threads in the work. The actual area should be densely embroidered with thick threads, while the virtual area should be embroidered with fewer stitches and fine threads. The work should not only show the distinction between the primary and the secondary part from near to far, but also have the proper and accurate use of color. Although the price of such a work may not be as high as the full embroidery, it reflects the texture of the main body and highlights its fineness. The embroidery piece should first embroidered with the thick threads in the underpainting, later with fine threads to add colors on multiple layers. In this way, it gives full paly to quintessence of the original work. The thinly embroidered part should be properly applied with multi-colors.
 Therefore, when we appreciate Su embroidery from different perspectives. One cannot tell whether a work is high-qualified only through the thickness of threads or the price of the work. To sum up, it is mainly a combination of five aspects, composition, thicknesses, colors, stitch length and embroidery areas combined with the luster of the work.  Good Su embroidery works have not only proper thickness of threads, flexible stitching methods and multi-colors, but also soft silk luster that can change from different perspectives.
 Su embroidery, another pearl of Suzhou, is the crystallization of the labor and wisdom of Suzhou embroidery workers. I hope Su embroidery will have a prosperous future and more and more people can appreciate its charm and work to make it better. Su embroidery belongs to not only people in Suzhou, but also people around the world.
 Author: Gu Xiaoxian