The “Four Renowned Embroideries of China” were regional in their origin. Su embroidery originated from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Yue embroidery originated from Guangdong province, Xiang embroidery originated from Hunan province and Shu embroidery originated from Sichuan province.

Su Embroidery is most famous and popular in China, it is noted for its beautiful patterns, elegant colors, variety of stitches, and consummate craftsmanship. There is one distinctive features of Su embroidery i.e. some pieces are both-sided embroidery. That means the picture look exactly the same one one side of the fabric as it does on the other. The stitching is done with silk threads that have been divided until the actual thread is almost impossible to see, through the repetition of stitches a very dense embroidering occurs. Double sided embroidery usually mount on a traditional carved wooden frame which can be rotated so both sides could be showed to customers.

A good embroidery makes not only great house decoration but also a valuable collectible.

How to select a good Suzhou embroidery product?

Due to Su embroidery are 100% handmade, the price can vary dramatically depends on its size, technique and quality. Therefore, we must have some basic knowledge how to check the quality of embroidery.

Normally we can check the embroidery product through three aspects, the design of embroidery, fineness of needlework, color variation and whole effect.

First, a good embroidery product must have a beautiful pattern which different from an ordinary one; the silk portrait is usually the most expensive hand embroidery, then it would be landscape, still life, animal and floral pattern.

Secondly, the needlework should be dense and on some specific area, the thread should be very thin so the image will become vivid. To create a good quality embroidery, an artist must split a single silk thread upto 64 thinner strands - depending on how fine the embroidery work should be. The artist then stitches layer after layer using various color of threads to reach the final wonderful effect.

Lastly, the color sense of a good embroidery is bright and gradual color change is natural, whereas the color of ordinary embroidery is not very harmonious.

Hu Xueping