The home of the House of Zhang and the birthplace of Silk Art is a city called Suzhou, located in the deltas of the Yangtze River in Southeastern China, about 60 miles west of Shanghai.

Suzhou has a history of more than 2,500 years, dating back to the late Shang Dynasty. Marco Polo called Suzhou “The Venice of the East“. An old Chinese saying calls Suzhou a “Paradise on the Earth“. Centuries of tourists have praised the beauty of Suzhou’s nature, classical gardens, bridges, waters, traditional operas, and the soft tone of the dialect. Suzhou is still a favorite tourist destination with a rich history and a fascinating present.

Over the years, Suzhou has evolved into a modern industrial city. With a total area of nearly 8500 square miles and a population of just over 6 million, Suzhou is a major manufacturing, technology, investment and exporting base in China.

The post 81027 Green Parrot first appeared on silkart.

Backgrounds are different
One very easy way to spot the difference between a handmade Silk Art and machine-made embroidery is to look at the back of the canvas. The back of handmade Silk Art is irregular and loose. You can see and feel the knots. Each piece of thread is no more than two feet long and so there are knots when a new piece is started or when the artist changes colors. The stitching at the back of machine-made embroidery is very tight and neat, every stitch is perfectly identical to the next. There are no knots on back of machine-made embroidery, because they don’t need to change thread. Machine thread is very long; each spool is a few miles long.

The post 74119 Tiger Head first appeared on silkart.