Today we think of Japanese embroidery as silk and metal embroidery on silk fabric, which is now being shared with the rest of the world. The long tradition has established basic strategies of stitch direction, working direction, and stopping and starting threads. These strategies such as working foreground to background, and stitching toward yourself, can be applied to many other types of embroidery. One of our members said that Japanese embroidery class is where she learned to comfortably use a laying tool and that it has made a world of difference to her counted thread stitchery. Learning to twist flat silk into an infinite variety of stitching threads shed light on the behavior of the threads which we use every day.
Japanese embroidery is worked on a special frame that holds the fabric drum-tight.
This allows the stitches to be laid tightly and consistently, which enhances the sheen of the silk threads. Other traditional tools include handmade needles, an awl, and koma. There are 46 techniques of Japanese embroidery to be learned, practiced and mastered. The techniques are not difficult unto themselves, but the mastery of stitch length, direction, and tension takes practice. The Japanese believe that time brings skill.