more earthquake embroidery

6" x 6", embroidery on felt, bead embellishment.

here is the third piece in my series on the earthquake. this one reflects the moment we are at now, 6 months after the quake. winter is coming to south western China, and this year it is expected to be a cold one, which will lead to even greater vulnerability for the millions who are without permanent housing. Reconstruction has started, but it is a mammoth task and will take several years. In the meantime, many people will need looking after, especially during the cold winter months.

As it was sunny this morning (although way below freezing, with a forecast of "smoky" - you can imagine what that means in Beijing, ugh), I took photos of the first two pieces so you can see the colors better:

the next one, which I am just starting now, is about rebuilding.

The earthquake and back to embroidery.....

It's been a very long time between blog posts........and almost as long since I picked up a needle and thread. I am afraid my sewing year has gone totally off the rails because of work. If you are wondering what I have been doing, I have been working on this:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-11/13/content_7202416.htm

So far, it has been months of long, long work days and trips away, including to Sichuan and Washington....... But even though my team is tired, we don't pause to think about what else we might be doing, because winter is coming and there are many extremely poor and vulnerable people who need us to help them right now, and there are many people in Sichuan who are working much harder than we are. We are just a small part of the story that will be told one day.....

This may be the most difficult and yet the most meaningful work I have done so far in my career.

But it sure has put paid to my sewing time. A few weeks ago I gave up on applique for this year - it became too difficult to work on something so beautiful and so exact amongst the tragedy and chaos of the one of the world's worst earthquakes. So I decided to put my thoughts on the earthquake into stitching using a series of embroidery pieces. I have completed two so far. I plan either 6 or 9, and then I will somehow mount them together as a tribute to the Wenchuan earthquake victims and all the people who are working to help them. I may even hang them in my office to remind me later of this period of time.

The first two pieces are about the impact of the earthquake. The first is about the human tragedy:

"empty arms, shattered dreams"

6" x 6", embroidery on felt, silk and cotton applique, bead embellishments

This piece is dedicated to all the mothers who lost children in the quake. The numbers of children who died are still not known, but most certainly many thousand children lost their lives in schools and kindergartens. In this piece, the heart behind the maternal figure is white, the color of mourning in China.

"the mountains exploded"

6" x 6", embroidery on felt, cotton applique, stone, bead and bone embellishments

This piece (the colors are not very good in this scan, in reality the background is more mauve and the hills more green) depicts the extraordinary environmental impact of the earthquake. In the mountainous areas near the epicenter, the land did not shake, it literally exploded. Massive landslides scar the landscape and huge boulders lie littered about where they were spat from the mountain sides. When I am in that area I simply cannot imagine how horrifying it must have been to have been there that day, to have the world explode all around.

I have started this series with some pieces about the tragedy of the quake, but I do intend to also include some that will portray the rebuilding process which has already begun, the enormous number of people from all walks of life who are helping the people of the earthquake region to rebuild their lives, and especially the hope that I have for a better future for the children of Sichuan.