Friday, July 30, 2021

JEC Special Class - Peach blossoms with small bird

Happy world embroidery day! Sorry for the long absence. I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but work got in the way. I also got my second vaccine dose, so now that I can see friends I have less stitching time.

A little bit about this new piece I started. It is called Peach blossoms with small bird and is inspired by a scroll painting called "Touka shoukinzu" by Japanese artist Itō Jakuchū. It was originally supposed to be a special class for the group going to Japan for the JEC Nuido tour, but was cancelled due to COVID. Their bad luck is my good fortune. As virtual classes were so successful, the JEC decided to not only offer the class online but to also open it up for all students who are phase 7 and above. As you know, I'm no where near phase 7 but with permission from our teachers they were willing to allow lower phase students to join.



The class was taught by a professional embroiderer in Japanese with Arata-san translating over three days. We started off with an introduction of the art piece and history of the artist. The teacher explained how he designed the embroidery to recreate the translucent effect on the flowers. 

These peach blossoms will take some work to get them just right. We're used to working on pieces that are very structured and are always striving for perfection, but here perfection is set aside for what they called "feeling".


On the second day, we had a presentation on the history of Kurenai-kai before we started covering the blue bird. This bird is a mixture of structural and "feeling".


I really enjoyed stitching the bird and ended up doing a bit more when the class was over.

The third day of class, covered a few more elements on the bird, the stems and leaves. By the last day, I was very tired and didn't attempt any stitching. I was very happy to just sit and listen, taking notes. 

Since stitching on the bird, I've set the frame aside. My goal right now is to complete the beading on Calm Flow so that I can remove it from the frame. I'm very nearly there and I just need that extra push to get it done.

3 comments:

  1. This sort of thing online can be very intense, I'm not at all surprised you had to stop stitching on the third day!

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  2. I understand the feeling - with being vaccinated now and the low infection numbers of summer, it feels like we're doing a LOT of socializing to make up for the long dark winter - and possibly prepare for another one, who knows how it'll go!
    Your stitching, as always, is marvelous. Phase 7, wow, but it looks like you are mastering it with the same level of diligence and perfection that you bring to each of your projects!

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  3. The Japanese embroidery looks beautiful, especially the bird you've stitched. Looking forward to seeing this one grow.

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