Zhejiang Taizhou Embroidery Renewal: Embrace Innovation And Cross Border Integration

Rows of incandescent lights illuminate the workshop. The dexterous embroidering lady sits in front of the embroidery frame, holding a needle and thread in her hand, and constantly pricks and penetrates against the manuscript. Countless times of cycling, the silk gradually has layers of undulating texture patterns

Taizhou Embroidery (hereinafter referred to as Taiwan Embroidery) is an original creation of Chinese folk embroidery, which was included in the intangible cultural heritage protection list of Zhejiang Province in 2007. At the beginning of the 20th century, Taizhou local embroidery technology was integrated with western carving and drawing, forming a unique style of "carved flat embroidery". In its heyday, Taiwan embroidered clothes were sold to more than 60 countries and regions, including the United States, France, Italy, and so on, enjoying the reputation of "oriental treasure".

Taizhou embroidery works. Photographed by Zhuang Jiayu

At the end of the 20th century, under the impact of industrialization, many embroidery factories that used to make a living by OEM fell silent. Today, the inheritors of Taiwan Embroidery are exploring in process innovation, artistic creation, product development, business integration and other aspects to promote the continuous inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage skills.

"Today's fashion is tomorrow's intangible cultural heritage. We need to draw energy from scientific and technological innovation, so that intangible cultural heritage can live in the present and art can reach life." Lin Xia, a master of Chinese arts and crafts, a representative successor of Taiwan embroidery, and the chairman of Zhejiang Taiwan Embroidery Clothing Co., Ltd., said in a recent interview.

In June this year, the company sent a piece of work "Ripple", about 6 meters long and 3 meters high, to a hotel in Hangzhou. "Ripple" is hung in the lobby as the reception background wall.

Platform embroidery has a three-dimensional sense, but the design drawing of "babbling" is not different from the final product. How is this achieved?

"The hand-painted design drawings can not give a realistic stereoscopic sense, unless they are painters with excellent shape." Lin Xia said that compared with the computer design drawings, the completion period of the hand-painted design drawings is long, and it is difficult to flexibly modify the graphics, colors, etc., and to present details.

Therefore, in 2013, Lin Xia began to design with PS software. With the practical application, she found that whether PS software or hand painting, it still remained in the processing of plane lines, unable to present the unique three-dimensional relief texture, texture and color of platform embroidery.

At that time, the final appearance of the works mostly existed in Lin Xia's mind, which was difficult to accurately convey with the help of design drawings. In the process of embroidery, unpredictable problems are often encountered.

To solve this problem, Lin Xia took a sample of the needle method, transferred it to the computer for extraction, and then used it for design. Embroidery elements without sample will be modeled in 3D to achieve ideal texture effect.

In this way, the stitch, texture and color of embroidery can be vividly displayed on the design drawings, which not only makes the embroidery mother more handy, but also makes it convenient for customers to see the effect of the finished embroidery products.

"AI design is very popular now, and we are also using it to assist design and development. In the future, I hope to explore in acousto-optic technology, artificial intelligence, metauniverse, etc." said Lin Xia.

In recent years, Lin Xia has boldly crossed the border and constantly explored more possibilities for the integration of Taiwan embroidery into new business forms. In cooperation with a restaurant manager, she made the embroidery work "Network World" into a glass dinner plate.

Making an embroidery glass dinner plate can be roughly divided into two steps: first, design and complete the embroidery work, and then integrate the work between the two pieces of glass.

Lin Xia once wanted to cooperate with an experienced furniture company to develop dinner plates, but because of the difficulty coefficient, no enterprise was willing to take orders. In desperation, she can only find ways to understand the process flow of ordinary glass dinner plates, hire glass technology experts, invest in the construction of glass workshops, and ponder over the process little by little.

The embroidery glass dinner plate should not only ensure that the embroidery is not deformed and discolored in the vacuum dust-free glass interlayer, but also facilitate the cleaning of the food and beverage. The surface of the dinner plate should be flat enough, and the side seam should be free of water.

Embroidered glass dinner plate. Photographed by Zhuang Jiayu

"At that time, we worked until midnight every day. Every time we thought we would succeed in research and development, there would always be unexpected problems, which could only be overcome again and again. After the successful research and development of the embroidered glass dinner plate, it was recognized by the market. We also received many cooperation invitations, and successively produced tables, sushi plates, lamps and lanterns, etc." Lin Xia said.

In the past two years, Lin Xia has successively opened three accounts of "Taiwan Embroidery Lin Xia", "Jintai Embroidery" and "Taiwan Embroidery Life Art Museum" on the social media platform, respectively, to carry out content creation corresponding to Taiwan Embroidery's artistic creation, distinctive clothing and trendy life.

"Whether an intangible cultural heritage art is alive today and has really entered the public life, an important test is whether it has been concerned, liked and used by young people." Lin Xia said that she will continue to share Taiwan embroidery works on the Internet to help more people understand the development status of Taiwan embroidery and promote regional culture.

(Source: China News Network)