INKSTON Gongbi Painting Practice Book – Flower and Bird Paintings

Compared with the machine-stitched silk commonly available on the market, the material and techniques for Shu embroidery are unique.

Hand-stitching is often thick, layered and following the direction of the design to create an artistic whole than looks and feels good.
Machine stitched embroidery is often uniform, uni-directional and relatively plain.

A good example is our premium cushion cover which is really a work of art, a visual and tactile feast:

The smaller products use the same techniques and allow you to enjoy the same quality at a more affordable price.

Shu Brocade is pure hand-stitched silk embroidery made stitch by stitch by master craftspeople.
The Shu kingdom was taken over when the Qin dynasty united China over 2,000 years ago and is now part of the Sichuan area around Chengdu. The Shu name and silk making tradition still survives and is used most famously for Shu brocade silk still produced in this area.
Shu brocade was recognized as the highest quality production and reserved for the Imperial court and official robes, and a Brocade officer was appointed in Chengdu to control production.

Authentic silk is a natural protein fibre produced by caterpillars. The material is quite different from man-made material and has a special lustre or shine that changes with the angle of the light.

Since silk is made from natural protein, it should be looked after differently compared with other materials. Most importantly, it cannot be washed with washing machine or any strong chemical detergent. On the other hand it is actually very easy to look after silk.

In summary: clean gently with water and only mild detergent.
Avoid: sunlight, alkaline solutions, sweat, oil, biological cleaning powders, other chemicals and perfumes, all of which can damage the silk.