"Post-90s" Lanzhou embroidery artist Liu Yao My future is not a dream

Liu Yao is working on a creative zhou Yanwen photo

Zhou Yanwen, an all-media reporter of Lanzhou Daily

Recently, a group of embroidered fan works showing Dunhuang's hand posture have caught fire on the Internet, and the exquisite and unique fan surfaces make people can't help but want to understand the story behind them. Therefore, the author of this group of hand-embroidered fans, Liu Yao, an embroidery artist in Lanzhou", has become the key to the story.

"Dunhuang Hand Gesture" shows traditional Chinese culture

"The seemingly simple lines of the hand are actually more difficult to draw, and it requires a very solid foundation of painting skills." For each embroidery work, it is necessary to simply draw the outline and then embroider it with needle and thread. ”

Curly hair, with gold-rimmed round glasses, fashion trends, the first impression of Liu Yao at first sight, is a young and fashionable little girl. But as soon as it came to the "Dunhuang Hand Posture" series of works that had recently been on fire, Liu Yao immediately turned into a professional embroidery artist.

According to Liu Yao, the "Dunhuang Hand Posture" is divided into 3 series, each series of 4 fans, namely the Bergamot series, the Guanyin hand series, and the flower holding hand series, a total of 12 fans, all of which are different.

In Liu Yao's heart, 12 exquisite hand-embroidered fan surfaces are 12 unique works of art. From the end of December 2018, Liu Yao began to formally embroider the finished product, although it only takes 2 to 3 days to complete the finished product of a hand-held fan, but before this, Liu Yao has made preparations for about two years, from embroidery to the fan surface, material, color, shape, size, etc., all aspects of various attempts. During these two years, Liu Yao devoted herself to the creation of Dunhuang hand gestures. After having sufficient preparation, Liu Yao began to formally embroider. It only took more than 2 months to complete the embroidery of 12 "Dunhuang hand postures" in 3 series.

"Really did a lot of trying and preparing. I have wanted to do Dunhuang themes for a long time, and I have collected a lot of information and materials, and I have been brewing for a long time before I decided to show it with my hands. The hand posture has also become a very artistic part of the Dunhuang grotto paintings. 'Hand' can help people convey emotions, language, and gestures are also a medium of information communication. The various hand gestures in the Dunhuang murals also express their different meanings and moods. From scratch, every detail is repeated. Looking at the fan in his hand, Liu Yao said with emotion.

Three generations of grandchildren embroidery family

"My grandmother and mother also do embroidery. I grew up in an atmosphere of embroidered female red. In the studio, Liu Yao also brought embroidery works from her grandmother and mother.

I recall that when I was a child, my grandmother did the most with purses and window flowers. Every festival, neighbors and relatives and friends come to find grandma to make purses and cut window flowers. When Liu Yao was one year old, Grandma specially made a very large and exquisite purse, which means that the five poisons, zodiac signs and flowers of peace and health will be Made into a purse through a pair of skillful hands. This purse, Liu Yao treasured to this day.

In Liu Yao's collection, there is also a kang curtain. This is the dowry that Liu Yao's mother prepared for herself when she got married. It is embroidered with brightly colored, vivid and lively New Year painting dolls. "This kang curtain, using the method of chopping embroidery, now it seems that whether it is embroidery, color matching, composition, etc., it is not outdated at all, and the technique is also quite exquisite." So I often lament that in that era of lack of materials and relatively closed information, my mother had no guidance, only based on what she saw and what she imagined, groping and studying, and had such a high level of embroidery skills. Said

Dao Grandma and mother, Liu Yao looked proud. From liking to loving regretless entrepreneurship

After graduating from college, Liu Yao gave up the high salary and mature development market, resolutely returned to Lanzhou, planned for a long time, decided to take embroidery as a lifelong career, opened a studio, and concentrated on embroidery.

In August 2017, Yang Liping performed a performance of "Winter of the Peacock" at the Gansu Grand Theatre. Liu Yao was invited to combine the dance content and create three pure three-dimensional round fans in silver and white, showing the peacock coming to life to death. The exquisite and unique handmade tuan fan suddenly attracted Yang Liping, and two of them were collected on the spot. With the affirmation and encouragement of the big coffee collection, Liu Yao has become more determined to continue to take this road.

"In the age of innovation, we can no longer take what is ancient and recreate what is ancient, but we should innovate. Using modern materials and expression methods, using innovation and creativity, to show the characteristics of Local Chinese art. For example, I will use different embroidery methods and materials to express it. ”

Dunhuang "Feitian" is a new series of fans that Liu Yao is about to start creating, for the future, Liu Yao said that he hopes to do his best to drive embroidery to the public, open some embroidery interest classes, so that more people can re-understand traditional Chinese embroidery.