This post is contributed by my mother Laura, who spent the summer in Taiwan.
Tainan, Taiwan is famous for its many, many temples. With that many temples filled with statues of deities in need of costumes, walls in need of tapestries, altars, temple doors and gates in need of banners it is no wonder that traditional Chinese embroidery is found in abundance in Tainan.
Delicate embroidery adorns the miniature robes and headdress for the small statues. This one is doll size-maybe 1.5 ft (0.46m) tall. The larger statues of gods, goddesses, and their minions are also elaborately clothed but large or small the embroidery is magnificent.
Couched goldwork and silver is used lavishly. Colors are not subdued, pastel, or earthy. Brilliant, glowing, shining materials are used throughout. Silk, satin, gold, silver and pom-poms!
An entire section of the workshop is hung with smaller tapestries one on top of the other. All are the same width, about 5 ft wide (1.5 meters).
Then there are the ginormous banners 15-20 ft or longer (4.6 to 6.1 meters).
Here is a close up of satin stitch motifs and gold work outlines and stems. Chinese are not afraid of color!
embroidery for ducks 