The techniques and skills necessary to create Silk Art are passed from generation to generation, and require years of training to master the techniques. While embroidery is ubiquitous throughout the world, high quality Silk Art is rare. Only a tiny handful of people can produce Silk Art that touches your heart and soul.

The real reason, however, to possess Silk Art, is its beauty. The gentle kiss of love, the warmth of a summer afternoon, the wind on your face, the water flowing by, the delicate touch of the feathers fluttering, the majestic animal become poetry in the Silk Art form.

There is a sense of life you can taste with your eyes, a sense of spirit captured as no other media can. This exquisite artwork will remain pristine for your family to appreciate for generations. Please explore our galleries and join the international family of Silk Art collectors.

The post 77180 Suzhou Village first appeared on silkart.

The Silk Art process begins with tightly stretching a canvas over a wooden frame. The design is then roughly outlined, directly on the canvas. At that point, the artist begins stitching the most intricate parts of the pattern with tiny needles and colorful silk threads, bringing the image to life.
Each strand of silk fiber can be divided in up to 16 individual threads. 1/16 of a strand of silk thread is finer than a human hair. The thinner the thread, the finer the art work. The artist then builds layers of threads of varying colors and thicknesses to create dimension, shadows, and highlights. A small piece of Silk Art takes one artist a few days to complete, a masterpiece may take several artists a few years to bring to the final stage. This array of techniques and materials come together to create unique and multi-faceted works of art.

The post 77182 Suzhou Village first appeared on silkart.

Are these being done by children?

NO, again NO. Silk Art masterpieces are not the work of children. It takes 20 years to master the techniques in order to produce high quality Silk Art. Please see our section on artistic talent.

You are working directly with the artists and their families. We do not put our children at risk for the sake of a few dollars.

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5. Layers of Stitches – Visual Depth
Silk artists vary the length and thickness of stitches, layering them one on top of one another to create depth of perspective. The Silk Art creation process is different from paintings. When an artist creates an image in silk, each of the individual fibers and their color remain intact. Where a painter would blend the paints to create the exact affect desired, a silk embroidery artist must blend the colors by layering them. The effect is to control exposure of color, depth of perspective, lighting and shadowing, creating an effect not replicated in any other form of art. The more skilled an artist is at layering and stitching the more dynamic the interaction with light. This is a key measurement of quality called Visual Depth.

Some simple pieces may have 3 or 4 layers of stitches; larger works might have ten times that amount. When a Silk Artist creates a very complicated landscape, it has more layers of stitches than are completely visible, building and blending the colors to replicate nature as closely as possible. The same piece of art can become the forest in morning sun, to mid-day, to evening and even all the way to moonlight. It is truly spectacular and beautiful.

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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 77067 AUTUMN WITH DUCKS first appeared on silkart.

The techniques and skills necessary to create Silk Art are passed from generation to generation, and require years of training to master the techniques. While embroidery is ubiquitous throughout the world, high quality Silk Art is rare. Only a tiny handful of people can produce Silk Art that touches your heart and soul.

The real reason, however, to possess Silk Art, is its beauty. The gentle kiss of love, the warmth of a summer afternoon, the wind on your face, the water flowing by, the delicate touch of the feathers fluttering, the majestic animal become poetry in the Silk Art form.

There is a sense of life you can taste with your eyes, a sense of spirit captured as no other media can. This exquisite artwork will remain pristine for your family to appreciate for generations. Please explore our galleries and join the international family of Silk Art collectors.

The post 77076 Autumn Forest Stream first appeared on silkart.

Does the art have credibility and long term value?

The right piece, we believe it will. Keep in mind this art form has been around for thousands of years and top end pieces sell in the hundred of thousands of dollars. See some of our grand masters.

BUT it is with hesitation I would accept any claim of long term value for any art. The only way to truly see if art has investment value is when it is resold. Find art because you love it, not because you expect it to be worth thousands of dollars in years to come.

One of the big reasons we believe Silk Art will increase in value is simply what is happening to the art. The way you get a 3000 year history to the art is when you are born you have no choice. In today’s China people have lots of choices. A major concern is, as China industrializes, the hand arts, especially one where you spend hour after hour after hour stitching, will disappear.

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1. Artistic Talent – The individual skills and development
Professional Silk Art artists go through a lengthy learning process to develop their skills and talent. The very first lessons begin on grandma’s knee. For Silk Art families, teaching our children about the family legacy is a centuries old tradition. For those with talent and an interest, formal training starts in their late teens.

Artists must spend ten years as a student and another eight years as a teacher in order to meet the time requirement to be a Master Silk Artist. After five years as a Master Silk Artist, an artist may apply to become a Grand Master Silk Artist. These are general guidelines. Time alone does not necessarily make you a Master or Grand Master. Talent and skill must be demonstrated as well.

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