I just had the opportunity to visit the hometown of silk embroidery, Suzhou (in China). Although I have never embroidered in my life, I appreciate and highly value hand-made crafts. In fact, I like Western-style, silk embroidery so much that I will be importing them from China for sale in the U.S. Many persons in the U.S. have seen and are familiar with traditional, Chinese silk embroidery which contains birds, mountains, and seas.
On the other hand, Western-style embroidery is virtually unknown here in the U.S. What it entails is creating a silk embroidery piece from a western photograpy or oil painting. The colors are simply amazing in the scenic embroideries that I saw while in an outlying district of Suzhou. There were literally about 100 silk embroidery stores concentrated in a 2 to 3 block area of this small town. I observed and marveled at embroidery craftswomen - both young and old alike - needling away on a silk satin canvas.
To see this art of "Painting with needles" in person was fascinating. If you would like to learn more about what I call "A Hidden Oriental Jewel", check out