Ningbo Museum exhibits lace embroidery from Xiaoshan

Category: Ningbo District
Published: Monday, 27 July 2020 14:32

Ningbo Museum recently launched the exhibition of "Xiaoshan Lace Embroidery". 21 sets (52 pieces) of exquisite Xiaoshan lace embroidery exhibits meet with the citizens in the lobby of the first floor of Ningbo Museum, allowing the citizens to understand and appreciate the excellent traditional Chinese crafts closely.

Xiaoshan embroidery, also known as “Wanlvsi”, is a kind of embroidery that is directly knitted with threads to pick and embroider lace. It is developed on the basis of European medieval folk embroidery. It blends with our country's folk lace skills, and the lace process has produced a significant variety. The George Lace Factory

opened in 1919 was Xiaoshan’s first lace factory. Since then, the lace skill has spread around Guali Town. Xiaoshan Lace is famous for its exquisite design, novel composition, exquisite embroidering skills, and rich levels. In the 1970s, there were more than 300,000 women working this industry. Xiaoshan was popular in picking lace and became a production base

Xiaoshan lace production is generally divided into four processes: design, brush matching, embroidery, and ironing. There are more than 20 steps. Some large-scale works are collectively woven by hundreds of thousands of people. They are unique crafts, practical supplies, and even collectibles. Zhao Xixiang, who is more than 80 years old, is a master of Chinese arts and crafts. For more than 60 years, he has gained talents and bold innovations. He has created tens of thousands of silk carvings combined with embroidered laces, Gexin embroidery, color chains, gorgeous belts, keel belt laces, and shuttle splendid edging. His works have won national gold medals and gold medals in the Chinese Arts and Crafts Cup.

The most noticeable part of this exhibition, "Bed Cover with Embroidery Lace" is Zhao Xixiang's masterpiece, which perfectly blends 35 kinds of Wanlvsi silk embroidery techniques and 10 Taizhou silk embroidery techniques. This work was designed by Zhao Xixiang in 6 months, and 58 senior embroidered ladies aged over 60 completed the entire work in 8 months. It includes all the techniques of Xiaoshan lace since its development for many years, and provides a textbook-like template for the inheritance of future generations, which is of great research value.  

This exhibition is mainly based on traditional works, but also has many innovative works, reflecting the overall style and context of Xiaoshan lace development over the years. Successors from generation to generation and innovations from time to time show the vitality and modernity of Xiaoshan lace. Zhao Xixiang's apprentice Wang Lihua's work "Colorful" is striking, boldly breaking through the traditional white or beige color of Xiaoshan's lace, and using rich colors for difficult production. The work "Ode to China" moved the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland to embroidery, using Chinese landscape painting as inspiration and a needle as a pen to solidify the charm of the landscape on the embroidery