ANNE WANNER'S Textiles in History / book reviews, articles |
Inside Chinese Embroidery: The Art and the History, by Elizabeth Molnar LaFleur, Carrollton, Texas USA, 2002, in english, 311 pages, many black and white drawings, diagrams of stitches, color picture gallery with today's needlework, bibliography ISBN 0-9726542-0-8 The price of the book is $ 44.95 plus postage of $ 5.00 (US only). Order your copy by contacting the author at her email address: lafleurtx@earthlink.net.By phone please call ++972-242-8048 |
Press review: Once you see an example of Chinese embroidery you will not forget it. Old and beautiful; unsurpassed in using silk to its best advantage; its history mostly unknown by embroiderers, this book will tell you its story. No one has taken the time to write a history of the development of this skill. Embroiderers know that skills need to be saved in a documented form so that when the old practitioners of the skill have died, the knowledge still remains for the future. |
embroidered scene of flowers on a limb. The design is very traditional in Chinese culture |
the author at class of China international Academy for Weaving and Embroidery in Suzhou, China
Elizabeth Molnar LaFleur has stitched embroidery for many decades. She learned silk embroidery in the Orient and she continues to take classes in this needlework in China expanding her own embroidery skills. |
The author has researched
this subject through archaeological, ethnological,
historical, and cultural art
sources. The scientists and scholars have
provided information which the author has arranged and
presented for the public. She takes the reader from the
early ages, pre 3'000 BCE to current work done
by those who are expanding it with their new discoveries.
The reader will find out how deeply silk played a major
role in the beginning of the Chinese people and their
culture. In many ways this embroidery is a reflection of what the Chinese people are. |
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The book answers the
following questions: How are embroidery and
the Chinese language connected? |
Included in this
history are single and doublesided embroidery techniques,
and a technique of 20th c. innovation. The documentation
of the embroidery gives the world an opportunity to know
about it. A photo gallery brings you color photographs of
works from older times and of the newer times.
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* * * * * |
This book is a must
have for: embroiderers who enjoy knowing details about their art, art history majors and those who wish to understand how the art developed, adventurers who want to know the people of other cultures, those interested in textile arts, or the general public. |
home content | Last revised May 29, 2004 | For further information contact Anne Wanner wanner@datacomm.ch |