I am asked repeatedly to
point out examples of the "Forbidden Stitch" in
Chinese embroideries. This moniker normally refers to the
"Seed" or "Knotted" stitches used along with
satin stitches and couching on highly decorative, finely-worked
silk costume items. One romantic view
suggests that this label appeared when such work was forbidden
among young girls because its
fineness contributed to eyestrain. A close look at Chinese
embroidery, however, discloses a variety of other stitches that
are sometimes worked with similar intricacy. Below are a
few examples of the various effects achieved with the
"Seed" or "Forbidden" stitches.
Later on this page are examples of the "Pekinese Stitch,"
which is sometimes confused with the Knot stitches, but is a
different structure entirely. |
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Seed Stitch
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known as Knot Stitch, Chinese Knot, Peking Knot,
French
Knot, Ring Embroidery, or Forbidden Stitch |
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terms all consistently refer to small knots made on the
fabric surface by wrapping a heavy embroidery thread, usually
silk floss, around a needle and then stitching it down.
This has been done with varying numbers of wrappings and degrees
of complexity. Wang Yarong says that more than twenty varieties
of knot stitch can be found throughout history--presumably in
East Asia alone. She mentions that early relics of this
stitch have been found in an Eastern Han tomb at Nuoyinwula,
Outer Mongolia, and even earlier examples on a pair of silk
shoes discovered in a tomb of the Warring States period in Linzi,
Shandong Province. |
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Five types of "knot stitch," Wang Yarong, Chinese
Embroidery, New York & Hong Kong, 1987, pp 141-142.
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The small purse below is
worked with the simplest kind of knot stitch, like that in the
diagram at the left above. Each stitch is left open to form a
small ring. When worked closely, a finely textured surface can
be produced. |
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Young Y. Chung shows the
same basic stitch, but one that is more plump and rounded
because of an extra loop formed around the needle. She calls it a "seed stitch," and points out
that the closest approximation to this stitch in
European work was the French knot, which she says "cannot compare with the fine perfection achieved in
Chinese embroidery with minute yet basically simple
execution...sometimes so fine that it can barely be seen from
more than a foot away."
The photo below shows a detail from a sleeve band on a woman's
informal robe. It shows the small knots worked with several
strands of silk floss together, in rows, but massed to fill
sizeable areas. Here they are combined
with couched gold threads and satin stitch. |
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"Seed
Stitch." Young Y. Chung, The Art of Oriental Embroidery,
New York, 1979, p. 37.
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Other
authors show a knot stitch with only a single loop around the
needle. Pamela Claburn decribes this as "a stitch resembling
french knots and often mistaken for them," but says
that, "The chinese knot is flatter, more shapely and
not so twisted. In Chinese embroideries it is seldom used as an
isolated stitch but is generally massed together, often covering
large areas."
Among actual Chinese embroideries, it is unusual to find the knots so widely
spaced or scattered as in the drawing. The spacing is dependent upon
the length of the
connecting stitch on the under side of the fabric. Each knot is indeed separate, however,
and this distinguishes the stitch most clearly from the Pekinese Stitch shown later on
this page. The example below represents the kind of knot
stitch most often found in extant late 19th century Han Chinese
costumes-- looped once around the needle, fairly flat and
closed, worked in rows that are combined to fill sizeable
areas. |
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"Chinese
Knot" or "Pekin Knot," Pamela Clabburn, The
Needleworker's Dictionary, New York, 1976, p. 60.
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Seed stitches have also
appeared in Chinese Minority costume embroideries. Below are
details from a Miao Baby Carrier from the Taijiang area of
Guizhou Province. The Miao artisans developed a style which combined knots with heavy couched and overcast
cords. It became popularly known as "Dazi"
embroidery. Below, "Dazi" borders are used along
with masses of intricately folded silk appliqué. |
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Pekinese Stitch
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known as the Peking Stitch or Chinese Stitch |
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Even a quick glance at the drawing
on the right, by Mary Gostelow, should tell us this is an embroidery structure
quite different from the Knot
stitches. On embroideries where the work is
especially fine, however, it's not always to easy to recognize the difference
without severe magnification. |
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"Pekinese
Stitch." Mary Gostelow, The Complete International
Book of Embroidery, New York, 1977, p. 256.
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"Pekinese Stitch,"
Young Y. Chung, The Art of Oriental Embroidery, New York, 1979.
p.31
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Here Young Y. Chung takes us through the process.
First, a back stitch is laid down, with stitches that are fairly
long and loose. Then, with a blunt needle, the Pekinese Stitch
itself is laced through the back-stitch segments, going forward
two and back through one to form a series of loops. The
finished appearance can differ depending upon the kinds of threads
or floss used, the size of the stitches, and how firmly the thread
is pulled. Among Chinese embroideries, the Pekinese Stitch has been used
most often for
linear elements, rather than as fillings for large areas.
The first example below, from a small purse, shows the Pekinese Stitch done with two
different colors, and different types of yarns; thus the
structure is easy to see. The backstitch was done with blue silk,
then a gold-foil-wrapped silk thread was laced through those blue
stitches. |
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In the belt purse below, backstitching and lacing threads are the same color and
fiber. The Pekinese Stitch is used throughout, forming
the design entirely with linear elements. |
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carrier from Yunnan, China, below, the Pekinese stitch has been
closely worked to form leaves and flowers. In solid areas it is
difficult to isolate individual stitches, but where single rows
of one color appear, the tight, linear arrangement becomes
clear. If the lacing thread is pulled firmly, a ridge forms along one side of each
row. In the detail at the left, the artisan has sometimes reversed the
direction of her stitching, placing those ridges together for a
special accent. |
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In the Shui Baby Carrier
below, we see the Pekinese Stitch used to fill spaces between
the heavy couched horsehair pattern outlines. Sometimes on these
objects, silk braid is appliquéd, and this stitching could
easily be mistaken for such braid without a close look. |
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Here's still one more
example of Pekinese Stitch--on a Miao appliquéd child's
pinafore from Guizhou Province, in southwest China. Here it the
effect is of an asymmetrical looped edging. It is very finely
worked. |
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MARLA MALLETT
1690 Johnson Road NE
Atlanta GA 30306 USA
E-mail: marlam@mindspring.com
Phone: 404-872-3356
or Toll Free: 1-877-542-0841 |
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