Liu Yuxia: Bring Suzhou Embroidery To The North To Make Money.

She is a lucky person who has been living in her ideals and interests for many years. She said that life is actually a matter of mind.

In July 31, 2010, an ordinary weekend, according to the prior agreement, the reporter came to the front of the "embroidered Zhongyuan" shop No. 50, 4 floor, Shijiazhuang Lok Mo mall.

Unexpectedly, the door of the glass was closed, and the reporter knocked on the door for a while. Liu Yuxia, the owner of the shop, came out.

"I always do business by closing the door. I think customers who come in will always come in, not coming in.

Entry: no intention

In 1999, Liu Yuxia took the initiative to resign from the position of senior management of large state-owned enterprises and began to do what he was interested in: Su embroidery.

"Work is monotonous, and it is not something that interests you. It is too terrible to make a lifetime of doing things that you are not interested in.

I have to change a way of living. "

Talking about the reasons for resignation, Liu Yuxia still congratulated himself on the courage to jump out of the inherent trajectory of life, so as to have today's wonderful.

At the beginning of the resignation, the rule of life that had been repeated for more than ten years was suddenly broken, and there were inevitably some losses in my mind.

Fortunately, her mother and husband often comforted her: "now that you are not happy with your work, don't do it.

No matter what you do, you can feed your family. Although you can't talk about wealth, you can't live without that salary. "

Without any worries, Liu Yuxia plunged into the embroidery of his own interest.

Liu Yuxia lived in a family with strong traditional culture, and 6 brothers and sisters in the family.

Mother is a person who loves beauty. She often puts one or two Sufu embroidery on her clothes and shoes. After Liu Yuxia's exposure, she also likes to be on pins and pins.

Besides doing some Suzhou embroidery works under the guidance of mother's hand, she also bought a large number of related books, learned the latest techniques of Suzhou embroidery, and understood the latest trend of Suzhou embroidery.

After studying for more than a year at home, in 2000, Liu Yuxia went down to Suzhou to find a famous local embroidery master.

However, when people saw her nearly 40 years old, and a northerner who did not know Su embroidery at all, she refused her request categorically. Liu Yuxia was not discouraged and actively analyzed her own shortcomings. The second time, she brought her own embroidery works and talked to the teacher about his understanding of Suzhou embroidery, painting and art.

The other side felt that her understanding was good, so she agreed to take her as an apprentice.

More than a year after studying in Suzhou, Liu Yuxia had a deeper understanding of Suzhou embroidery.

Suzhou embroidery is not only a world intangible cultural heritage, but also a traditional handicraft left by the ancestors. Moreover, in the process of Suzhou embroidery, it has some enjoyment, some achievements, and self-cultivation.

Liu Yuxia said that art is interlinked.

After a long period of practice, she has been able to integrate painting, music, literature and calligraphy into the manual arts of Suzhou embroidery, so that the viewers can enjoy the beauty.

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Before that, Liu Yuxia only regarded Suzhou embroidery as an interest and play.

I did not expect such a willfully laid the foundation for her farther and farther in the field in the future.

The real call for Liu Yuxia to run Suzhou embroidery as a cause was a call from the Shijiazhuang reemployment office in 2003.

This morning, Shijiazhuang's "4050 project" reemployment office told her to participate in a small boss entrepreneurship training.

During the two week training, she began to understand the business philosophy, financial management and human resources management.

At the end of the training, Liu Yuxia sent his Soviet embroidery work "Red Maple" to the leadership of the Employment Bureau. At first glance, the leader thought he was a photographer. After he understood that it was hand embroidery, he was amazed: why can't such a good work go to the market?

In this way, with the strong support of the government departments, Liu Yuxia decided to go out of the family and take Su embroidery as the starting point of his own business.

Initial business: difficulties

With the support of government departments, Liu Yuxia selected two rooms in the compound of the Employment Bureau and signed an employment agreement with the employed persons who participated in reemployment training.

After retraining the basic skills of Su embroidery, Liu Yuxia gave them some raw materials and brought them home for processing. Liu Yuxia paid the processing cost according to the piece, as the labor reward of the re employed.

With output, the next problem that Liu Yuxia needs to solve is income.

How to turn output into income is the most fundamental problem that entrepreneurs need to solve when they first enter the business world.

In early 2004, Liu Yuxia rented a more than 20 square meter house in Shijiazhuang's calligraphy and painting center as a storefront. It served as a window for displaying Suzhou embroidery works and for sale.

However, Liu Yuxia, who had just entered the business venture, encountered many difficulties.

The first impact comes from the production process.

In the industry, most of them are machine embroidery operations, with high efficiency, fast production and low cost. A Suzhou embroidery takes about a week by hand, while machine embroidery can produce fifty or sixty pieces of work in the same time.

Liu Yuxia said that the handmade products abroad are relatively expensive, so as to reflect the value of manual work.

In order to let the customers know the value of the handwork, Liu Yuxia moved the loom to the shop, and produced embroidery embroidery in front of the customers.

This traditional loom made many people an eye opener. The customers knew the production process of Suzhou embroidery, and saw that it was pure handwork, so they gradually felt good about Su embroidery.

The second shock comes from competitors.

"Why do you compete with others when you are new?" when Liu Yuxia entered the industry, he was questioned by his colleagues.

However, she has her own way of thinking: peers are not friends.

When we are engaged in a certain industry, we will win the fittest. Only the fittest and the strong can survive.

Liu Yuxia never looked at the price tags of other stores and never wandered around the shops.

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Despite many difficulties, Liu Yuxia firmly believes that the world of handcraft is a must, and there must be a market.

Marketing: integrity based

In 2006, Liu Yuxia founded the embroidery workshop of embroidery Zhongyuan.

Next, Liu Yuxia expanded his business ideas in many ways, positioning the product as home decoration, collection, gift giving and so on.

When she first started doing Suzhou embroidery, she sent Suzhou embroidery to all the major hotels in Shijiazhuang, in order to promote the products, and commissioned the hotel to sell Su embroidery in the form of consignment.

However, the effect is not good.

Liu Yuxia contacted the women's federations and regarded her Suzhou embroidery as a local characteristic tourist commodity. She contacted primary school to bring Suzhou embroidery into the children's manual classroom.

Liu Yuxia said, next step, she hopes to bring Suzhou embroidery to university, so that those graduating students will come to experience the production process of Suzhou embroidery personally.

"Nowadays college students are rather impetuous, hoping to bring them a calm mentality through Suzhou embroidery before they enter the society."

In addition, Liu Yuxia also contacted the clothing store. After she put a Suzhou embroidery on her dress and scarf, the clothing store's business suddenly became better.

"Honesty is the foundation". This is Liu Yuxia's operating principle. "Connections and human relationships are the first elements of management."

Once, an old woman approached the shop and saw a piece of Suzhou embroidery. She bought her home for less than two days. The old woman called Liu Yuxia in a disturbed mood, saying that the children did not like the painting, and the price was more expensive.

Liu Yuxia said, "it doesn't matter. If you don't like it, bring it back. I will return it for you."

The old lady was very happy. The two men agreed to return the goods in the morning of second days.

On the second day, Liu Yuxia had to leave the shop in the morning. Before leaving, she gave the old woman the money to buy the Suzhou embroidery, and said that once the old woman came back, she would return it to the family as long as there was no damage.

The second day the old woman came to the shop with a picture. After learning about the situation, she was moved by Liu Yuxia's sincerity and decided not to return it. "I am an old woman. As long as I like it, it doesn't matter whether the children like it or not."

I will not retire this painting! "

Liu Yuxia said that buying and selling is in accordance with nature, not buying and selling.

Nowadays, she does business by closing doors.

"If you want to come in, you will always come in. If you do not come in, you will not stay."

As time went on, Liu Yuxia had a deeper understanding of Suzhou embroidery.

In addition to integrating literature, calligraphy, painting, music and other artistic elements into Suzhou embroidery, she also endows the works with new souls and improves them on the basis of the original works.

"It's easier to paint than a gourd, but it's harder to embroider it out of life."

Liu Yuxia said.

Now, she has innovating and improving Suzhou embroidery, combining Western painting with Chinese painting, combining printmaking and sketching, thus endowing the works with new connotations.

From the sales point of view, the theme works such as landscape and peony are more popular.

As Liu Yuxia explored the experience, slowly, by 2007, many large factories and mines and government departments in Shijiazhuang had presented Liu Yuxia's Suzhou embroidery as a gift to foreign friends who had discussed business.

They feel that this is a gift that represents Chinese traditional culture.

In 2008, Liu Yuxia conquered the experts and judges by virtue of a eighteen works of Luo Han. He was awarded the title of "master of Arts and crafts in Hebei province" by the Hebei Provincial People's government.

The price of Liu Yuxia's Suzhou embroidery works ranges from 200 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.

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Liu Yuxia began training for Su embroidery students from the training organized by the Shijiazhuang re employment office.

So far, more than 150 trainees have been trained in her shop.

Now, she limits the enrollment of 6 students every year. "Since it's a craft, we should make it look like a craft."

Liu Yuxia said, "the next step is to respond to the call of government departments and set up a training base to make Suzhou embroidery an industry, so that more people can benefit from it."

Liu Yuxia said that it is not difficult to learn the basic skills of Su embroidery.

If students do not have the knowledge of art, then they will be reproduced and embroidered. If there are artistic skills, they will be embroidered as they are.

The original works are usually the works of celebrities.

Suzhou embroidery is an art re creation process, so there is no infringement problem.

For entrepreneurs who want to enter the industry, Liu Yuxia said that from a technical point of view, it can be successful; from an economic point of view, it is an industry that can not get rich quickly, but it can have a steady income.

For ordinary entrepreneurs, they can not take Liu Yuxia's boutique route, and take the popular route, that is, the work is slightly rough, and the raw materials and processes used are different, and still have the profit point.

"No matter what kind of entrepreneur, a calm mind, a good human resource, and a good faith based business philosophy, these three are indispensable."

Liu Yuxia summed up his entrepreneurial experience.

Liu Yuxia said she had no ambition of others. She was just doing what she liked to do.

She does not agree that women want to be strong women. "Being a strong woman is not a good thing. Everything is natural."

She said, "embroidery Zhongyuan" can go to today, and national policies, leaders at all levels and family support is inseparable.

At the moment is the millennium, people with higher living standards have leisure time to play and collect.

It is not clear when the business started to get better. In Liu Yuxia's memory, business has been steadily advancing. Her works have been booked until 2012.

Related links

Suzhou embroidery

The birthplace of Suzhou embroidery is now in many parts of Wuxian, Suzhou.

Suzhou embroidery is the general name of embroidery products in Suzhou area. The embroidery of Zhen Hu town in the hi tech Zone of Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute is most famous.

Characteristics of Suzhou embroidery

Suzhou embroidery has the unique style of beautiful design, ingenious conception, meticulous embroidery, vivid acupuncture and elegant colors. The local features are strong, and embroidery technology has the characteristics of "flat, neat, harmonious, smooth, smooth and uniform".

"Flat" refers to the spread of embroidered surfaces; "Qi" means the edge of the pattern is neat; "thin" refers to the fine needle, embroidery thread fine; "dense" refers to the line layout is compact, does not reveal the stitch; "and" refers to the appropriate color; "light" means dazzling, bright colors; "Shun" refers to the silk round round;

In May 20, 2006, Suzhou embroidery was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list approved by the State Council.