watch me screw up a $200 piece of art!

so today i was at the one of a kind show helping out my honey at his booth. what luck that his display just happens to be directly across from where artists are doing demonstrations of their work! last night i watched one artist show how he makes these colourful and multi-layered silkscreen prints. today an artist named qing (king) was demonstrating how he creates pictures using an ancient form of embroidery. i'm telling you, this guy takes embroidery to a whole new level! it's like he's painting a picture with silk thread. anyhow, he was a great guy and asked if anyone wanted to give it a try. i eagerly volunteered even though i was so nervous about making a mistake and ruining all of his hard work.

first i had to separate a string (made up of 16 individual threads) until i only had 4. this was really hard because the silk threads are sooooo fine! i couldn't believe i was able to thread the teeny tiny needle!


here is qing being really patient with me! i had no clue what i was doing. and people were watching me! eek!


this photo didn't turn out too well but it's the picture i did some embroidery on. i did about 5 stitches on the little green plant. (this is going to be a picture of a koi fish, i think).

i am amazed at how he uses about 4 different shades of each colour, like orange, to give the picture so much dimension. i wish i had a better picture to show how realistic his work is...

i was so excited to have participated and then he did the nicest thing...he gave me a beautiful framed picture of a bird that he embroidered! i was shocked! the only thing i would have expected he would have given me was a bill for a couple hundred dollars to pay for the piece of art i just destroyed.

i love birds...i think i'm going to hang the picture in my studio.