Cross stitch and Korean embroidery

So, here I am in the public library, using one of the internet access PCs there and just taking a few minutes to post some recent photos.

The first four are from our trip to Korea late last month. These top two were taken through a shop window (it had lots of horizontal bars across it as it was closed at the time and so I could only get these close-ups without the bars spoiling things), which seemed to be selling very richly embroidered 'hanbok' - traditional Korean dresses. I think these are likely to be wedding clothes.


Later on we visited a tiny knotwork museum where there was an embroidery display. These items here were used by the owner for her son's first birthday traditional celebrations.

This was the corner with several lovely embroideries and knotwork examples. Aren't they gorgeous?

Just before leaving Taiwan, I finally managed to get the field mice cushion made up and sent. It's been received and its new owner is delighted with it, despite it being somewhat uneven at the bottom, but she would never notice that!!

And this is how far I got with the narrowboat cross stitch piece whilst we were in Germany for the first 12 days of September. The last time I posted about this piece it was just the green blob on the right, but now, thanks to the brown and grey bits, it actually looks like a tree, bushes and a bit of a fence!

Thanks a lot for all the well wishes that came my way following the last post. Thankfully, it wasn't neuralgia, but a tooth nerve that had actually been sensitive for a whole year. After a deep filling coming very close to it, it went potty, but I've had the initial treatment done and, except some post-op type of discomfort, I'm pain free again.=)

Anyone whose been reading for more than a year will know that we had trouble getting our shipment through customs on the way into Taiwan. Well, our return one has been stuck there again for the past fortnight plus and they even planned to send it back, despite instructions on the address labels under no circumstances to do this! Anyway, we seem to have stopped that and are literally praying that they are finally satisfied with the documentation and can get the boxes to us soon! Also having trouble getting the new car insurance sorted, finding a new home, getting work organised and what have you, so all is anything BUT smooth right now! Still, the weatehr's nice, we have a place to stay for as long as we need it (within reason) and we're keeping on trying to get stuff done. It will feel all the better for the amount of work it's needing.....

© Elizabeth Braun 2010

Japanese Kimono

I'm rather badly behind with blogging at the mo, especially here and on Brauns on Tour, but I'm just so wound up with the conclusion of our Chinese classes here (finished this lunchtime) and now the preparations to leave. Be that is it may (and it is!!), I thought most readers would enjoy some photos from Japan in the form of my being dressed up in a traditional kimono! It starts with these amazing socks that make your feet look so odd (I saw a local chap here in Taipei wearing leather boots like this recently too!):

Then you move on to the underwear stage. There's a special, cotton undergarment that forms a base layer to the whole thing. This photo also shows that you don't need to speak the same language well in order to share a laugh! My 'dresser' here only speaks her native Japanese of which I know only a little.

Next comes the white layer you can see here with the red belt, which seemed almost an outfit in it's own right to me. I rather like the colour scheme too.=) Here you can see the patterned top layer going on as well.


Here's a shot of the trickiest part, tying the big 'obi', the belt. I think that took almost as long as the rest of the dressing process put together!

After having a fancy hairdo done - plaited across the back and then formed into a side ponytail, which is a very trendy style in Japan (mostly without the plait though as you need someone else for that), this was the finished look, complete with the correct sandals.

And here from the back out of the local street. Our, mercifully, Chinese speaking Japanese friends wanted me to go out onto the Shiji Dori, Kyoto's main shopping street and walk down there, but anyone who knows me well would know how little I would enjoy that! As a rule, unlike the Chinese, the Japanese don't stare at white people, but they do when one appears in a kimono!!

Hope you've all enjoyed our little excursion into traditional Japanese culture!

I've no stitching to show at the mo, although the field mice are further on in terms of being finished up. However, we took a trip to Tokyo on our last full day in Japan and visited the Okadaya textile crafts emporium. I was really inspired by all the lovely embroidery threads available on the 5th floor (there were also trays full of Japanese embroidery silks, which I've always wanted to drool over) and that fired my enthusiasm again.=) I didn't buy anything, but it was fun and here's a photo of a class that was being held during my visit. I think they're doing crochet or something like that.

Hope to post soon with the completed cushion cover and progress on the goldowork which, ideally, I'd like to have done before we head back on 28th.

© Elizabeth Braun 2010

Too busy to stitch again!

I did spend a little time on the hardanger piece the other day, (I gave myself an hour's 'weekend' whilst watching a Sherlock Holmes on Youtube on Sunday!!), but I ended up having to pull a lot of stitches out as I'd gone wrong. I don't like buttonhole edging, grrr! So, nothing to show there.

We've had unexpected guests for the past three days which, along with being back at language school, (I was able to stitch and post a lot during that last lot of holidays), has kept us very busy. Anyway, yesterday was a public holiday - the Dragon Boat Festival, so we went up to the Yangming Shan national park, which is all within the Taipei city limits, and visited one of Chiang Kai-shek's 15 homes there!!! This was his 'guesthouse' apparently, and it's green! Had it been white or stone coloured, it would have been nice, but the green was a bad, BAD choice. So bad that I won't post a photo!! Whilst we were looking around the rooms, however, I got a lot of great design inspiration photos from the artefacts and trimmings there, such as this firescreen:

And this red vase:

And the set of 4 seasonal blue glass internal windows, of which this is one:

I can see that done in silk and sheer fabrics in appliqué etc, can't you?=)

Hope to get back to being able to stitch something soon, and at least get poor Dianne's package in the post, then I can show off the nice fabrics I bought last Thursday. It mightn't seem much, going to two hours of class a day, but add in transport, extra classes and/or library time etc and we're out of the house for at least four hours per day, and up to seven!

Now, Carol S asked me about the field mice cross stitch chart and where it came from. Carol, I can't tell you exactly at the moment as I don't have my mags with me and I'd been using a copy I made to bring with me, which has no indication of date. All I can tell you is that it's by Maria Diaz and it appeared in 'Cross Stitch Crazy', probably some time in 2003, (I bought a fair few cross stitch mags 2002-4, but very few since). As it's an autumnal sort of design, it might be something like the September issue. I checked on the publisher's website, but they don't have it available as a download to sell. Leave me another note with contact details and I'll see if I can help further.=)

The Ebbs and the Flows

Well, it seems like I'm far from the being the only one whose finding their stitching motivation a bit slack at the moment. In fact, quite a number of bloggers I follow have been quiet of late or are finding that life is getting in the way of their arts and aren't producing much to blog. I've only done the outlining on two of the blackberries since I last posted. Sometimes it's lack of time, sometimes lack of umph and sometimes that I'd just plain rather watch a YouTube film!!!

School is quite a lot of work trying to keep up with everything and keep head above water with the tests that are fired at us on a three times fortnightly basis - two sentence dictations (quite a challenge in Chinese characters at times as it's so easy to forget how to write them, even though you can read them fine) and a written paper. Still, they make one learn and, with someone like me, that really is needed, so on the whole I don't mind. However, it does leave one a bit drained at times - mentally, if nothing else. So, not a very productive time creatively just now. Having said that, I did manage to get the next issue of 'Creative Embroidery and Cross Stitch' at the Eslite bookstore nearest to school (they're great for foreign magazines - including titles I can't get at home, so that's something I really like here!), and so I now have full instructions for that fantastic little house you saw on the cover of the last mag show.=) I don't think I'd make it exactly as it is in there, but the idea is great and I hope to do one one day. Perhaps a timbered house. You know, those white ones with the black timbers on, Elizabethan styling. I want to have a go at an embroidered garden one day too, so that super book, 'Embroidered Knot Gardens' is going to the top of my wish list.

We've decided to get a place with an extra room when we go home. Said extra room will be my studio, which will double as the guest room (i.e. the sofa bed will be put in there and we'll get a new suite for the living room). So, guess who's all excited and has the whole thing almost all planned out in her head? Just what I've been wanting for years, I'm so pleased about it. All I need now is for it to come to fruition.=) Look out for more on that early next year...

So, I think things will be fairly slow stitch and arts wise during the rest of our time out here, but I will be keeping up as best I can, so please don't give up and unsubscribe/delete your RSSs or links etc. In fact, the more readers there are, the more I feel duty bound to entertain you, so don't leave, but join up en masse instead, and let me know you're there.

Here are a few nice photos of places we've been in Taiwan for you to enjoy in the meantime. Some of the hundreds of pix I've accumulated so far will no doubt end up as inspiration for later work. (The photo above is an 'old' stumpwork piece I enjoyed doing 5 years ago.)

On a stitching go slow...

Badly timed one as well considering that the TAST2 challenge has started. Still, I never expected to be able to join in all of it, esp. given that Tuesday is a rather impossible day to give a lot of time to needlework and always has been, but I plan to try and do it about once a month all being well.

Haven't done enough on either of my projects to merit a photo, only a little bit on the 2nd mouse on the cross stitch and have only touched the goldwork to move it to a safer place in the living room, but I hope to get on with both this weekend. I'm now back at language classes and trying to get into a good routine of study. Last term was silly, trying to cover far too much material and not enough time to practise using it or really learn it. This term looks much more balanced and I should even get a grammar book worked through.=) I'm trying to get almost all of my school work done actually at school, so that I can relax more at home and not feel I can't stitch as I haven't done my homework yet!!!

We went to a national park and the coast last Sunday - Tuesday (photos soon to go up on the Taiwan blog), and I bought some tribal inspired stash whilst I was there. There are 2 packs of quilting fabrics, one which looks typically Eastern and the other rather tribal. The chap assured me they were Taiwanese made, although they have Japanese on the label. I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, but I remembered that quilting crafts are BIG in Japan and so the main market for those products will be through exporting up there. Anyway, either way I liked them. The bands are used extensively in Taiwan Aboriginal tribal clothing etc and so I got some of those as samples. Don't know what I'll do with them beyond using them as examples in my later C&G diploma country studies (although Taiwan is not strictly a country....), but they make a colourful addition to the stash, no? The picture above is the shop's display of the bands, or at least the top half of it. The bottom half was covered as it was raining. Fancy that! The weather is still totally mad here with torrential rain one day and temperatures soaring the next. A dull, overcast and drizzly time was forecast for our trip, but the sun came out with a vengeance and I, who wasn't prepared at all well, got rather nasty sunburn! Thankfully, although I've never had it before, knew how to treat it by applying cold, wet cloths to get the heat out and using lavendar essential oil etc. Peppermint oil soothed the itching later and the patch is beginning to heal nicely without any blistering or peeling.=)

I added some Pages to my blog recently. Nothing really exciting on them, just a start made at introducing my stitching history and so on. The page on goals is general, not just embroidery, and there's my CV for fun!! Might put more on it later on, we'll see. I also cleaned up the sidebars to just display a Gallery of favourite pieces rather than 3 years' worth that took an age to scroll through.

Still alive!=)

Long time no post, huh? Sorry for the long silence on here, but I’ve had little or nothing to show stitching wise. I know some have been looking at my life in Taiwan blog, so they know I’m still alive, but judging by the drop in subscriptions on Google Reader, some have given up on me! Well, I’m still here and still stitching!


I’ve finally got the hardanger cushion cover done and am now just waiting to wash it out (there’s a light brown mark just outside the border on one edge) and then get it made up. I’m really cross that, no matter how I try, I just CANNOT get the colour to show up in the threads. It looks virtually white on white, but it’s actually a lovely baby pink and mid lilac shade of thread used. Complete washout when it comes to photography though! And no, you can’t see the shade on the enlargement either – not even a small fraction of it. Why it just won’t show up I can’t imagine! But anyway, the stitching is done and I just need some pins so I can get it all finished up and then sent on to my friend. Sadly, although I saw her the 2nd day I was over here, I can’t remember where I had her write her new address down for me, but I can send it c/o someone else, so all is not lost.=)

I started 2 new pieces, a Lizzie*Kate cross stitch, the Winter Button-Up design and a DMC stumpwork kit – a bee design. Haven’t done much of that as you can see and, anyone who knows the design will see that I’ve de-Christmassed the Winter design so far by omitting the stocking and the star on the evergreen. I won’t be putting the red French knot baubles on the tree either!!


The last photo above is my thread drawer! I brought my complete set of Anchor stranded cottons, some pearl cottons I needed for certain designs I brought (one I thought I’d brought then realised I hadn’t – after specially buying fabric for it too! So, I got another copy on E-bay last week!) and a couple of bags of selected metallics and beads. I’m missing my workboxes though and have wanted my Marlitt (rayons) once or twice. Still, I’ve found a couple of stitching shops – here’s the one nearest to my school, and they seem to do DMC Satin, which I want to collect along with their linen threads, so I might console myself with those!


More soon – it won’t be another month before I post – promise!

It's all happening here....

Here's the first line or two of a letter that came the other day:

So, we go to Taiwan about 21 August, all being well! I'm madly doing lots of on-line research about various things from student visas, through places to live and transport in Taipei, (an English bus map is downloading as I type!!). The trip's a few months away yet, but I like to get straight on things.=) I've just heard from the lady who does the admin for these stipends and she turns out to be someone I taught in East Asian Studies during my first year there. She also told me that I was selected out of a large number of applicants, so I'm really bowled over. I did write (quite honestly) that I was interested in learning about very specific Taiwanese things and, as they're interested in people with a passion for Taiwan as opposed to those who just want money to learn Chinese anywhere they can, so that must have done it. I'm really stunned and delighted!
Not much college work done, which won't surprise anyone, but I have got the Japanese cord more or less done. This is what it looks like and how it's made on the card. Please don't ask me to describe how it's done!!

Here are 3 of the photos I took in the V&A. Sadly, most just don't come out well and I don't know whether one can use flash or not. I did on some, but not on most, so I have only 4 or 5 worth showing. Will try again in July-ish when we take a visa trip to London. Here we have a Korean embroidered screen, an amazing thread painting and one that I just can't remember, but I think is possibly German as, in this section, I was focusing on Medieval English, German and Korean stuff.
Next time anyone's in London, check out CassArt. They have 4 branches and they sell genuine, big name art supplies for a fraction of the high street cost. DH bought me a set of 10 Winsor & Newton artists' quality watercolour tube paints for £19.99 that normally cost about £60. I have my eye on a 24 pan set that should be over £120, but that they sell for just under £30! And I want to see if they do Daler Rowney Sapphire watercolour brushes etc. Some things I'll just get in Taiwan, where it's also a lot cheaper than the UK, but then, where isn't, huh?

Back from Frankfurt

So, we had our weekend in Frankfurt and all went well. Even the flight was passable, although the take off and landing on the way home were nothing if not bumpy! It was rather windy at both ends. You're not scared in your mind as you know that it's nothing serious and certainly nothing the crew can't get through just fine, but your primal emotion - the body-mind reaction - is another thing! Anyway, here's a photo of what Frankfurt seems to stand for - money and banking! In the foreground we have the big Euro symbol statue thingy, whilst in the background you have the shiny tower of, I think, the Deutsche Bank. It's a big bank HQ whichever one it is!! This was taken on my new digital camera, which is great for things like this, but utterly hopeless for needlework. It's possible that I just haven't got to grips with it properly yet, but I had to revert to DH's old one for most of the pix below. That's a literal pain as the mechanism that keeps the little door of the battery compartment closed and thus the batteries in, has really had it now and you have to hold it tight shut all the time you're taking and up-loading photos.=( I confess to being really rather disappointed with that new camera. It was only a freebie and, OK, it does take good photos from further away, but the close-up function plain doesn't seem to work and you don't get a view screen when you switch it on. Must ask DH for help there.

Whilst I was in the main station in Frankfurt, I bought 4 embroidery magazines, 2 in Italian and 1 each in French and Spanish. I'd rather like the back issues of this French magazine, Broderie Tradition, but it works out quite pricey to order them and I really can't justify it as I have so much at the moment, so I decided against it, like a good girl!!

On the 'Stumpwork and Raised Embroidery' group (which I run) over on Stitchin' Fingers, we're planning on starting a stitch-along of a design from Inspirations #50 called 'Summer Harvest - Crab Apple'. This is the photo from the magazine. Do join us - the more the merrier! I'm going to find it quite hard to join in and keep up, (although I've specified that there are to be no timescales and/or deadlines for the SAL), as I have still so much college work to do and want to get the band sampler done ASAP as well. Here's the latest on that one, btw. Just done a few more bits at the bottom and it's coming along quite well now. There are 22 bands and I've now done 18 of them. Just the beading and finishing up to do after that.

I haven't done any more college work as yet as I wasn't ready with designs to take with me over the weekend - too busy doing other stuff and still feeling quite drained after that virus and another little something that's trying to get me at the mo. I haven't even done another stitch in that tree piece, (which is meant to be autumnal, Mary, although I admit the background painting is a bit lurid for that season!), but I hope to have that complete module done v soon and also have the shape one ready for marking after the Easter break. We have 2 weeks off coming up when I can't get any more behind, but can get caught up a lot, but there are still 2 more classes to go to first. I'm going to try and get there tomorrow, but I can't see myself staying a long time as I really feel quite rough again.=(

I took this little cross stitch kit away with me to Frankfurt. I bought it at the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch Show in Harrogate back in October 2007 when I was comfort shopping. I had planned to display it on my desk as befits a Chinese teacher, but it seems that, had I stayed at the Language Centre, I still wouldn't have had a desk! One of the managers, (who was so brassed off recently that he even complained to me!), was bewailing the fact that there are secretaries in other departments who have their own spacious offices, whereas LC staff have to see students in the corridors! I did see his point and, even though there are now 5 nice new classrooms and some more workstations in the new building, they've had to take on so many new English teachers this year that sides have burst again already! I wonder how it will go long term....

Got my scholarship application in the post today at last. Deadline is Tuesday and we should get the outcome mid-April, so not too long to wait. DH has to go through the German office and he won't know his outcome until sometime in May. He has a telephone interview to do before then. I kind of wish I had as that gives you another chance to make an impression and convince the awarding body that you're a good use of their funds. I was able to say, quite honestly, on my application form that I intended to spend some of my year in Taiwan on researching peculiarly Taiwanese textile and needlecrafts, which no doubt get over-looked in the shadow of China. They're keen for people to contribute to cultural exchange and this is one way it could be done. I also mentioned that I wanted to learn the Taiwanese language (not just Mandarin) so that I could communicate with the elderly and others on the island who speak less Mandarin than I do (and there are plenty of them). Well, time to wait and see.

2 hours later: DH and I have sussed the 'close-up' problem with the camera and it should now be OK. Hurrah!

Ahhhh, home again. How nice!

Mmmm, how lovely it is to be home. I'm jet-lagged to high heaven, wrecked from the yacky 25 hour-door-to-door journey and haven't got my land legs back yet, but I'm happy to be home. Whilst typing this, I'm also in the process of making the first meal I've made (other than putting together a few fruit salads) since Sunday 23 March! As the taxi driver on the way home from the aiport rightly said yesterday morning - I won't be wanting any Chinese food for a while!!!

So, here are some more photos that I took a day or so before leaving Taiwan which, while of nothing special, give some more idea of what city life is like over there (and also why it's nice to be back in quiet and relatively well spaced out northern England!). The bottom floor (ground floor for Europeans, 1st floor for others) is usually a shop of some sort. Often above that are a few floors of offices and other businesses, (training places, hairdressers etc), then come several floors of homes.

<-This is an art shop. It hasn't come out as well as I'd hoped as I really wanted to convey the crampedness of many Taiwanese shops. From the guy standing there, you get an idea of the width of the whole enterprise and you can just see the displays either side of the narrow passage from the door. There's more behind each display!!

Onto stitching topics and here's all I managed to do on the Goldfinches during the journey over to Taiwan:

Rotten photo taken in bad light in our room over there. Taiwanese apartments can be so dark as everything is so cramped together!










I think I did another 3 or 4 sessions on it whilst there and this is the current status as I did nothing stitch-wise on the way back. I just felt ugh from start to finish and watched 1½ in-flight movies and tried to get some sleep instead!! Last night whilst not letting myself go to bed too early, (although I think I could have gone anytime from 8pm really, we went about 9.30pm), I put in the top-stitching on the Blue-tits and am looking forward to getting them finally done. They've got 2 marks on them thanks to having been in progress and not well looked after for at least 9 months now, so I will need to wash that one before it can be framed.

This is some of the stash I bought whilst out there. Here you can see a large piece of light green satin fabric, (much larger than you can see here, it's folded several times), which I paid only NT$45 for (about 75p or US$1.50) and more than a dozen Taiwanese made embroidery ribbons. All but one are 5mm width (the other is a 7mm one) and they are made of nylon, not silk, but I think they're lovely and should wash and last well. They were NTS70 each (the 7mm one being NT$90), which is only about £1.20. You have to pay about £3 for most things of ribbon here and I thought they would be nice as trimmings on the bags I plan to make. I'll showcase all the fabrics I got for those when they come - we sent them back sea mail last Friday or so, so they won't be here until late May at the earliest.=(

This is the shop I bought the ribbons at, which was a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. It's a quilting shop really, who also sell sewing machines and a few other things and run quilting classes etc. One of the ladies there helped me to learn the Chinese for various needlcrafts!!=)

Here are the Chinese nick-nacks I brought back for a few friends and colleagues. Most of my friends have got so many Chinese things that I didn't think it was worth getting loads for everyone, but I did promise things to one or two and also to former Language Centre colleagues as Chinese things are more of a novelty to them.=)

Hi from Taiwan!

Well, hello from the Far East! Haven't had much time for posting or chance to deal with photo until today, but we're having a slow day today - running low on funds and my stomach's gone potty...=( so we thought we'd save train and food expenses and stay in - near the bathroom!!!!!

So, what is Taiwan like, other than hot and noisy? It's about 33 degrees centigrade here, (something like 90+ in farenheit, I should think), with high humidity and a building work-in-progress somewhere in this neighbourhood. Still, that's just like when I was living here as they were building a government place for training etc next door to my old block!! I went to see it last week.=) On the left is a street in Taichung, where we visited an old friend during the first weekend we were here and on the right in the pool in the centre of the very traditional teahouse she took us to, also in Taichung. It's quite well known and has it's own website: Wu Wei Teahouse, where you can see more.

I'm not sure where this left hand photo was taken, whether it was here in Taipei, down in Kaohsiung, or again in Taichung, but this is actually a food stand, where you can pick what you want from what's on display and it's all freshly cooked up for you. On the right here is one of the displays from the Kaohsiung Museum of History.

This last shot will be of interest to most of you. These are some handcrafts that were on display in the Taichung teahouse. I've since bought a load of oriental fabrics - both patterned and plain to have a go at making something like these to sell on Etsy, as well as trimming things to add to the zips and so on. Yesterday I found a quilting shop in the area we've been staying in here in Taipei and am told that there are some great embroidery shops near my old home area, so I plan to go and look. Not thinking of buying anything as I have more than enough stash for the next 25 years, but I want to know what kinds of work ladies do here. I daresay they haven't r heard of hardanger, ribbonwork or stumpwork, so there may be a market here for some pieces of those if and when we get chane to come back for a while. DH is trying to get some Taiwan etc related work so we can spend some time here as well as us both looking into further language training at the centres out here. Bloomin' expensive thus far!!

Haven't done much stitching, just a few hours on my new birds cross stitch. Will show photos of that next time, (probably when I get home next week), but I had some trouble getting on with it en route as the tapestry needle was broken and so I made a start with the little beading needle they provided (rather thin and delicate, as you can imagine!), which later disappeared and I couldn't find any to buy! I had put some in one of our cases, but instead of putting that one on the Taiwan plane, it ended up in Pakistan instead!!!! Thankfully, I'd divided our stuff into halves for packing so, should a case go astray, we could manage, and we at least got the larger one with the washing things in! So, what with delays in Europe thanks to the snow, (when we got an unexpected day in Amsterdam - thanks to to dh who put in 100 Euros 'just in case'!!!), part of our luggage going astray for 5 days, loads of travelling around and the weather here being cold and rainy for a few days, (it feels cold owing to the very high humidity, even though it's almost 20C/late 60sF), and now a bad tummy, it's been quite a trip so far! Caught up with lots of old friends and been to lots of old haunts.

More next time!