The Susho Technique
Often described as "Painting with Silk", the art of creating Susho (刺绣 Ci Xiu), has many more facets than most other artistic media. Compared to Susho, the process of painting is relatively simple . . . a brush, paint, and a canvas.
The nature of the silk itself adds complexity to the process of creating Susho. In addition to mastering and combining the variety of stitches, the artists separate individual strands of silk thread, a very difficult process. Finally, the artist determines how many layers of stitches to apply and the intricate hand stitching begins.
This array of techniques and materials come together to create unique and multi-faceted works of art.
The process begins with tightly stretching a canvas over a wooden frame. The artist outlines the design directly on the canvas, freehand. Then, the artist begins stitching, bringing the image to life with tiny needles and pure silk thread.
| The artist outlines the design on the canvas. | The artist follows the outline, stitching freehand. |
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The artist separates the silk thread. |
The artist divides silk thread into as many as 16 individual strands. The artist then builds layers of threads of varying colors and thicknesses to create detail and texture.
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A small piece of Susho takes one artist a few days to complete, a masterpiece may take several artists a few years to bring to the final stage.
As the stitching process can be straining to the eyes, the artists will work for very short periods, 10-15 minutes, broken up by a rest period where they perform a number of eye exercises.
As opposed to other forms of art, Susho is completely natural. The House of Zhang uses only natural silk, cultivated from silk worms. All Susho is completely handmade and the materials are solely silk fabrics, no glues, paint or machinery involved, just silk and the natural dyes used to dye the thread and silk screens. Due to the process of layering the silk threads with multiple stitches and colors, Susho creates hues and tones that are impossible in paintings. In addition, the sheen and texture of the silk allows for depth and dimension that is unlike any other artistic medium.
Stitches
Although there are more than 40 different types of stitches used in Susho, two are used most commonly, the Parallel Stitch and the Random Stitch.
Parallel stitches are used to capture detail. These stitches are tiny, neat, close and fine. This level of detail allows for the delicacy of the designs. Using only 1/16 of a strand of thread, parallel stitches are capable of capturing even the finest detail. This technique produces an amazingly realistic affect, most noticeable with animal and portrait works.
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| A lion in a parallel stitch (left) and an inset showing detail. | |
Random stitches are more varied and are used to build texture. The silk artists vary the length and direction of the stitches, with seemingly-random, overlapping layers. This technique creates a natural blend of colors and adds depth to the final work.
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| A landscape in random stitches (left) and an inset with detail. (This landscape has over 8 layers of stitches, not only blending colors smoothly and flawlessly, but also creating a three-dimensional look to the artwork.) |
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Susho is 3D
Paint is liquid color; colors do not stay intact as they blend. Blue paint combined with red paint turns purple, black paint over yellow paint looks, well, like black paint. Generally, liquid color has a single layer and looks somewhat flat. Susho use fibers of solid silk as color. Solid silk, stitched with multiple layers, maintains all the individual colors through different layers. By layering color, yet keeping the individual colors intact, Susho creates a three-dimensional affect not found in most paintings.
Susho is more colorful
As Silk Art uses tiny needles instead of brushes, each square inch of the work has many more individual colors and a much finer resolution. Not unlike High Definition Television versus regular TV, the added “dots per inch” create images that are much more detailed and colorful.
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| Thousands of individual stitches. | Thousands of colors of silk. |
Susho colors last longer
The artists at The House of Zhang use only silk spun naturally from our own silk worms. Less impressive types of Susho are made from the cheaper bamboo silk, or often manmade silk. The dye used to color our silk is also natural. Unlike chemical colors and paint, which degrade over time, naturally dyed, pure, silk color will last indefinitely, hundreds of years, if the silk is well maintained. Museums all over the world display ancient Susho masterpieces dating back thousands of years, amazingly vivid to this day. Please visit our In Museums page to see some stunning ancient Susho.
