Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 342 - 242: Multiple Embroideries on One Design
Qiu Yu’s eyes lit up, "If I practice, can I get better than I am now?"
Yi Chichi, "..."
How could she know that?
Some people make progress, like Liu Lan.
There are also those like her senior sister, who can’t seem to improve no matter how hard they practice.
Which type Qiu Yu belonged to, she didn’t know, but one thing was certain, "Just practice first, who knows, maybe you’ll discover a talent for it."
Qiu Yu, who hadn’t received any assurance, felt a bit disappointed, but soon perked up again, "You’re right, there’s hope if I practice, but none if I don’t."
She did well at her job at the Friendship Store, with a decent income and not much hard work, apart from it being unfriendly to the eyes and neck, there wasn’t much downside.
The cafeteria meals weren’t bad either, and the benefits were good.
Thus, for the salary and benefits, she had to give it her all.
Thinking of this, her eyes gleamed with determination as she said to Yi Chichi, "Let’s hurry and get this Plum and Sparrow done."
Indeed, it was about time to resolve it.
Not being able to teach her, Yi Chichi, who had to do it herself, asked her, "Did you bring the thread?"
Qiu Yu’s gaze fell on the embroidery piece she brought, and Yi Chichi followed her line of sight, a bad feeling rising in her heart.
It was a half-finished Jade Hall Spring, with a clear and full composition, the half that was embroidered used the padded embroidery technique, making flowers and fruits appear protruding and extremely three-dimensional.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how exquisite it would be once finished.
However, that wasn’t the point, the point was that apart from the needle with a thread attached on this Jade Hall Spring, there was nothing else.
"Don’t tell me this unfinished thread is the one you brought."
Pointing at the needle and thread, she couldn’t believe it.
Qiu Yu laughed sheepishly, "I thought marking the color wouldn’t take much time, so I didn’t bring any thread."
Yi Chichi, "..."
Marking the color indeed wouldn’t take long, but there’s a premise; she had to see the color of the thread to mark it correctly.
Otherwise, marking it wrong, and embroidering according to the marked color, would turn an exquisite piece into an ordinary work.
An ordinary work would then become just an embroidery piece, resulting in a big loss.
"I need to see the specific color classification of your flower threads and felt threads."
"Then you’ll have to come with me, I didn’t bring any threads."
"Let’s go."
Yi Chichi tidied the table a bit, carefully rolled up the Plum and Sparrow, and left her studio with Qiu Yu.
Their work location was quite close to the dormitory, with a spacious space, the doors and windows were open, and the ground was paved with cement.
At the entrance was a polished and lacquered wooden rack, on which hung various quality embroidery threads.
There were silk threads, cotton threads, and other types.
The embroidery cloths were on a rack next to it, of various sizes, made of different materials such as silk, cotton, and satin.
The embroiderers all sat diligently in front of the embroidery frames, some embroidering solo, others collaborating in pairs.
Yi Chichi became interested, going over to look at their embroidery pieces one by one, discovering in addition to Yue Embroidery and nail gold embroidery, there were several techniques she didn’t know.
Upon asking, she learned that these unfamiliar techniques were Felt Embroidery, thread embroidery, and Li Embroidery.
Among them, the thread embroiderer was a man, not particularly outstanding in appearance, not tall, with darker skin, but with long and soft fingers full of refinement as he skillfully manipulated the needle and thread.
What he was embroidering was a double-layer twin lotus, using a nearly transparent silk cloth, the composition full, the colors bright and layered, the twin lotus presenting overlapping reflections under the thin transparency of the silk.
It provided a strong sense of perspective and illusion, enabling different effects from different angles.
This skill was absolute.
Indeed, there were experts everywhere, in every field.
Seeing her full of admiration, Qiu Yu smiled and asked, "How’s our Master Qian’s craft?"
"Excellent!"
Yi Chichi gave a thumbs up, "A master!"
The praised Master Qian bit his lip, a bit shyly saying, "I’ve heard of you, Master Xiao Yi, your two-sided embroidery is also remarkable."
Bringing up a beloved topic, his eyes lit up as he discussed with Yi Chichi the differences between two-sided embroidery and double-layer thread embroidery.
However, the conversation didn’t succeed, because just as he started, Yi Chichi hadn’t had the chance to reply before Qiu Yu interrupted, "You two, hold off on the technical stuff, let’s settle the Plum and Sparrow first."
Immediately, everyone’s attention was drawn over.
Qiu Yu’s apprentices chimed in, "Master, can Master Xiao Yi handle the color of Master Gu’s piece?"
"She can."
Qiu Yu looked at Yi Chichi, signaling with her eyes, I believe in you!
Yi Chichi couldn’t help but smile helplessly, she was more confident than she was, how could she let down this trust? 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
She couldn’t.
"Come on, let’s check the threads."
"This way."
Qiu Yu quickly led her to the thread rack, pointing at the threads, "They’re all here, need me to bring a stool for you to sit and take your time looking?!"
"No need for a stool, I need paper and a pen, got any?!"
"Yes."
They had well-equipped tools here, with a full set of drawing tools, paper and pens were no problem, as sometimes notes had to be taken.
"Here you go."
Qiu Yu’s eldest apprentice, a girl with a keen eye, quickly fetched the paper and pen Yi Chichi needed.
"What embroidery technique will you use for the Plum and Sparrow?"
"Universal."
This answer shocked Yi Chichi, "Yue Embroidery, nail gold embroidery, thread embroidery all together?"
This was a typical multi-technique on one piece.
"This is the task given from the top."
Yi Chichi, "..."
Damn, marking the colors for this is going to be a bit tricky.
Different embroidery techniques have different requirements for the embroidery thread. Take two-sided embroidery as an example, a single thread can be split into 2, 4, 16, etc.
The naked eye can’t see the difference in the silk threads, but the embroidered result shows a noticeable difference, the splitting of threads directly linking to the natural change in brightness and darkness.
She stood still, with a distressed look on her face.
Seeing her like this, Qiu Yu began to feel uneasy, "Can’t do it?"
"The workload’s too big."
Yi Chichi looked at her, "You didn’t tell me beforehand that the Plum and Sparrow was a multi-technique piece."
Qiu Yu looked puzzled, "I thought you knew about this, just like your previous Twin Cat piece, that was a multi-technique piece too."
"I didn’t know about this."
Qiu Yu, "..."
Understood, the manager didn’t tell her.
But that’s not important, what’s important is—
"Help me out, otherwise, I’ll have to find the manager, and he’ll have to find Master Gu."
Yi Chichi thought it was a good idea, but she knew it wasn’t realistic. If it could be solved that way, it wouldn’t have fallen to her.
Thinking of this, she remembered something, "Did the manager tell you to find me for the Plum and Sparrow?"
Qiu Yu’s eyes suddenly widened, "You figured it out?"
Even if she hadn’t figured it out before, she was sure of it now.
She sighed, "Alright, I’ll do this job."
Receiving money from people to handle their troubles, besides, Ning Jiandong and the others were genuinely nice to her, emotionally and logically, she couldn’t evade this task.
After all, she’d be dealing with them for a long time in the future.
Having a stable income before the reform and opening was stronger than anything.
Connections had to be built up, preparing for the future.
Because of the multi-technique piece, simply looking at the threads couldn’t meet Yi Chichi’s needs, she needed first to see the requirements for various embroidery techniques on threads, and already judge and evaluate the color differences in the embroidery.
So, Yi Chichi officially entered the state of sorting out and understanding various embroidery techniques.
