Settling in at Home again

Late on Friday saw me safely home: from the sights and sounds and smells and brilliant colour of Souzhou and Pudong to the grey drizzle of England - coming to earth with a bump has nothing on this. Our last couple of days were spent in the schoolroom - you can see it below. My own small picture is shown here as work in progress and finished article. Mid Autumn Festival in Suzhou gave a real sense of celebration -the restaurants and parks were full to bursting and of course there was much giving and eating of moon cake!
I must say a great thank you to my husband, Jim, who did stirling duty keeping this blog up to date. It is not possible to blog directly from China through Google and he did it all for me - thanks, darling!
I'm finding it hard to get back in the groove of normal life. I hope you have enjoyed this small saga and I might just be back to relate my attack on City & Guilds 7023 and stories of stitching in Milton Keynes.

Work in progress

very small finished article

Central Souzhou at sunset on Mid-Autumn Day


Our workroom

Mon, Sep 20

Six of us said goodbye to our travelling companions this morning and began a mini-adventure at our own silk workshop (yes, Alison, it would have done your head in!).

We are now totally steeped in all things to do with silk. Yesterday was spent in the Silk Embroidery and Research Institute (SERI) where real masters of the art form work to commission from photographs, oil paintings or traditional styles. We noted that their work rooms are not just light and airy but also air conditioned - it's 38 degrees here. We followed this with a visit to a silk factory - cradle to grave so to speak of the silkworm. One of the most fascinating parts was watching four people stretch one cocoon to the size of a double bed whilst making a duvet!

Today we spent the entire day in a former primary school room perched on stools and bent over embroidery frames yet none of us has any additional aches and pains! Of course, having learned all about silk and its various types we had to visit Mei Mei silk shop - an Aladdin's cave of goodies - and, yes, I succumbed to the lure of the beautiful fabric and bought some.

Madame Zhang said we were all too good to spend our time on one picture so we are having more pictures and learning more techniques tomorrow. 22nd September is Mid-Autumn (or Full Moon) Festival here and it's a national holiday celebrated by giving and eating moon cake - pastry on the outside, fruit jelly on the inside but looking like a small pork pie. They are delicious and we have been looking forward to tomorrow since our last foray into a cake shop in Kail Li.

We've had a great time today disrupting the gentle flow of trade in the silk shops and generally making all the staff dissolve into fits of laughter when we ask for silk in our odd-sounding, desperate few words of Chinese. I can't believe this journey is nearly over. I've made some new friends and experienced a totally different world -- can't wait to tell you more about it.

Silkworms munching their way through piles of white mulberry

Master embroiderer working from an antique painting of bamboo

Making a duvet, one cocoon at a time in the Suzhour number 1 silk factory

Mei Mei silk

China 2010

19th September

Our last day in Kai Li included a visit to Mrs Li who teaches traditional Miao embroidery. She showed me how to do braid stitch - it'll take while, especially since her work is miniscule. There are some pieces set on my notebook in the photos so you can see them next to my drawing pen. Most of us bought something from her - her husband was very grateful because now they can mend the roof!

Shanghai is totally crazy and operates on the same adrenalin level as New York or Berlin - definitely not laid back. We visited the restored (courtesy of Jackie Chan) French Quarter, which was a bit like Disneyland. Then we took an evening boat ride on the Huang Po River and discovered the Shanghai attitude to lighting buildings! Not only the waterfront but also every boat is a bright as possible. By contrast the Museum was a bautiful oasis of calm. I began in the textile section but was really enchanted by the 3000 year old bronze workmanship like the pot with buffalo round the top and tigeter for handles. Last evening we arrived in Suzhou, my base until next Friday morning. Today was spent in Tong Li, a water town famous for silk trading - the beginning of the southerly silk road. The network of canals formed a floating market place where the food came to you. A quick walk through the silk museum completed the day. Tomorrow starts with Tai Chi at 8 so I'd better sign off.

Bronze in Shanghai Museum

Shanghai at night

Canals in Tong Li

China Second Week

Here I am in rural China and this FREE internet is working at 100mbps while out in the villages they have just finished electrification! and of course, every village has its own satellite dish and flat screen

14th September

This is where the journey gets interesting. Guizhou province is like everyone's idea of China with terraces of rice and corn and precipitous mountains. The sights and smells of Miao villages hit us right between the eyes: Ruth Smith's talk and slideshow were nowhere near enough preparation. We began with Wuli to get the feel for living perched on a mountain. The model village at Xijiang was a great introduction but it was the market in Zhouxi this morning that brought home how foreign we are - one woman couldn't believe that I was head & shoulders taller than she and another kept patting a rather plump member of our group for good luck.

The indigo sellers had large tubs of prepared dye for sale by the side of the road with accompanying buckets of pigs blood suitable for turning the blue to dark purple - purchased by the dollop. The main fabric here is ramie made from hemp and it needs to be beaten into submission to make it soft enough to stitch; a bit more beating and it goes shiny. The picture shows the purple cloth drying after 12 washes in dye. The pleated skirts worn by women are prepared around an oil drum then rolled across a stone to set the pleats.With that and the embroidery they are always at work!

The papermaker's village of Siqiao highlighted the main issue for rural China - no young people to carry on traditional farming and maintain the history and quality of local crafts.Everyone there was well past 30 and we only saw one toddler (ethnic people have no limit on the number of children they can have. The one-child policy applies in the cities with two children in rural areas). The government is pouring lots of investment into the area - utilities, roads, facilities, modern jobs and new affordable houses (and better drainage) in an effort to get young people to stay or come home after college or university.

The Miao national centre (model village?)

A typical farming village in Guizhou province

Everyone's idea of China - sub-tropical climate, mountains and terraces

The indigo cloth drying

Inidgo dye paste for sale.

15th September

Today was amazingly easy - we were meeting embroidery masters and found we were speaking the same language - even the purchase of some threads was easy! We spent the day in Shidong - the home of dragon boat racing! We began at the house of Mrs Wu who is a master at silk split stitch in the tiniest detail; I just watched since my turn will come in Suzhou. Our next stop was on the outskirts of Kai Li to a new museum of Miao and Dong textiles which had just opened in June. There is an example of local costume from over 20 areas of southwest China. Related to the museum is a workshop that does new work and preserves the old. Just like at a Branch Meeting, we passed round textiles that were 150 - 200 years old with lively designs and brilliant colours. I think I'll attempt knot stitch for our next sit and sew. The embroidery in the photo is about 60cm wide by 45cm deep and done entirely in knots surrounded by braid - brilliant. I finally saw a thread booklet - very tatty dragon one - offered on the street for 80 pounds! Needless to say, I didn't buy.

I've collected lots of lovely folk stories behind the art and look forward to relating them in the deep cold of winter. I may not be able to get any more information uploaded until Monday - my helper is taking a break this weekend - but by then I will be in Suzhou with more great stories to tell.

200-year old embroidery showing birds, fish and flowers.

The Qingshui River, home of dragon boat festivals

China 2010 Cont'd

The last two days have gone from the global to the very local almost by the hour. We visited the Great Wall and the terracotta warriors, both 2200 years ol and we also discovered ordinary life, meeting a farming family, a calligrapher and furniture maks. This is the rainy season in Xian and it was indeed very wet. Since Xian is the eastern end of the silk road, we had our first glimpses of silk embroideries, jade and porcelain. Fine papercuts, shadow puppets and dumplings are a feature of this area. Our 'dumpling dinner' last night had 8 types of cold appetisers and 18 kinds of little dumplings (like won ton). We had to quit before the last course! The eveing ended with a wander through the Muslim quarter of Xian and the raucous night market. We're next off to Dunhuang and more remote parts of China. Will let you know more, possibly on Monday when we get to Kaili.

Yes this is really it,

It was awesome watching the archaeologists at work restoring these magical figures.

China 2010

Today's been full of pattern, colour, noise and tastes: it was hot and foggy at the same time, we are regularly fed with the most wonderful fare - including Peking Duck - and the Forbidden City overwhelms with yellow, red, gold leaf and symbolism everywhere (It's looking good for being over 900 years old) and of course lots of people everywhere. Coming to terms with a country where everything is huge or vast is taking a bit of effort. This evening was the Chinese Opera which combines Music, dance, mime, gestures, acrobats and a story. Despite the language barrier we understood it all.

Our group of 16 comes from every corner of Britain from Bute to Cornwall. We've had a couple of lively discussions about the antional Guild, the National collection and the way ahead. I suppose by the time we're ready to go home we'll also have solved world peace.

Tomorrow is the Great Wall and then off to Xian for the terracotta warriors and the Temple of Heaven. Hopefully I will be able to check in again on Friday.

Here I am on the terrace of the entry to the Hall of Harmony where wannabe civil servants took their exams

Here's young Chen Miochang setting off after her lover from the Beijing Opera