Li Miaoer really wants to ask Shen Xiu to customize an orchid embroidered screen.
"You're right. Help me embroider an orchid screen as soon as possible. The sooner the better. It's best to finish it before the end of the year." Li Miao'er said.
Shen Xiudao: "This is no problem. I'll put the other embroidery work aside and I should be able to get it out for you. It's just that I don't have much silk embroidery thread on hand."
"I remember you mentioned this and asked me to pay attention to the silk embroidery thread for you. If there is no silk embroidery thread, silk is also good." Li Miao'er said, "After I arrived in Jiangnan, I asked the shop. Where is it?
Almost every household raises silkworms, and there are plenty of silk embroidery threads and silk. I bought some of them for you."
Shen Xiu smiled and said: "Thank you, my aunt, for taking the trouble to remember this matter. With the silk embroidery thread, I feel more at ease."
"You are so happy just to have silk embroidery thread. When you know what kind of embroidery I brought you, you will probably jump for joy." Li Miaoer joked.
When Shen Xiuyi heard that Li Miao'er had brought back some strange embroidery, she hurriedly said: "Good aunt, stop being so secretive and take it out quickly!"
Li Miao'er said: "This thing is still in the cage. I have already ordered them to bring the cage over later. You don't know that in order to buy this embroidery, I had to ask for a lot of favors to get it."
"
When Li Miaoer said this, she no longer wanted to talk about it, "It's a coincidence that as soon as I arrived in Jiangnan, I heard that an official had committed a crime and was jailed. In order to settle the relationship, my family took out some things.
sell off.
I heard from the locals that this official likes to be arty, and he especially likes to collect antiques, calligraphy and paintings, so I thought that he would also have expensive embroidery in his house.
I tried to inquire about it, and sure enough I found out that this official's home treasured an embroidery of the Guanyin statue. It was said that the embroidery of the Guanyin statue was made of hair embroidery that had been lost, so it was extremely precious.
I thought, Mrs. Shen, you asked me to buy embroidery products to improve my embroidery skills. Since this Guanyin statue embroidery is made of lost hair embroidery, it must be very helpful to you. So I bribed their family.
The housekeeper of the house asked someone to help me get through, and finally I was able to buy this embroidery of the Guanyin statue.
In addition to this embroidery of the Guanyin statue, I also bought some fashionable embroidery for you, and put them all in a box, so you can see them soon."
Shen Xiu didn't know what to say for a moment, but Li Miao'er could think of so much for her, which meant that she really took this matter to heart and regarded herself as a friend.
Words could not express Shen Xiu's mood for the moment, so she expressed it with actions and bowed solemnly to Li Miao'er.
Li Miaoer hurriedly helped her up.
"Don't be so disrespectful to me. If you really want to thank me, just hurry up and help me embroider the orchid screen." Li Miao'er said, "As long as you can help me embroider it by the end of the year, the price is not a problem."
Shen Xiudao: "I don't want any wages for this embroidered screen."
Li Miaoer said: "One code equals another code. I will help you bring back the embroidery of the Guanyin statue. I will not give it to you for free. I will take the money you paid for the embroidery of the Guanyin statue. And if you help me embroider the orchid screen, I will
Naturally, I have to pay you wages."
Shen Xiudao: "My aunt misunderstood what I meant. I meant the wages for embroidering the screen, and I plan to exchange them for medicinal materials."
Li Miaoer said: "You don't open a medicine shop, so why do you need so many medicinal materials? This is not firewood. You can bring it back by the car to make a fire."
Shen Xiu smiled and said: "What I want is not ordinary medicinal materials, but the best ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum."
"My aunt is not an outsider. I don't want much for the orchid embroidered screen. I only need three hundred taels of silver. These three hundred taels are used as money to buy medicine. I can buy any kind of ginseng and ganoderma.
."
Li Miaoer said: "So that's it. But why did you buy such expensive ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum?"
Shen Xiudao: "My husband-in-law will take the county examination next year. I heard that the county examination is in February, and it is cold and freezing at that time, so it is easy to catch wind and cold. I plan to give him a good supplement before the county examination, so that he can
I can successfully pass the exam and become a scholar."
Based on his strength alone, Wei Yan could definitely come back as a scholar. But at this time, county examinations, government examinations, and college examinations were not only about talent and academics, but also about physical fitness.
Shen Xiu was a little worried about Wei Yan's health, so she thought about buying some tonics, so that she would be sure.
Li Miao'er said: "I didn't expect you, girl, to be very fond of my husband. Three hundred taels of silver can't buy a century-old ginseng, but it is more than enough to buy a ten-year-old ginseng. As for Ganoderma lucidum, this thing is cheaper than ginseng. If you want it,
I'll leave some good ones for you later."
Li Miao'er's family is in the medicinal materials business, so she is often exposed to precious medicines such as Ganoderma lucidum. She said that she would leave a few good ones for Shen Xiu, and they would naturally be high-quality Ganoderma lucidum.
Shen Xiu thanked her immediately.
After a while, the people under Li Miao'er brought a box and cage, which contained the embroidery of the Guanyin statue and several smaller embroideries.
Shen Xiu only glanced at it before closing the cage. This embroidery of the Guanyin statue was hard-won. She didn't want too many people to know that she had such an embroidery in her hand.
It wasn't until he returned to the house that Shen Xiucai carefully took out the embroidery of the Guanyin statue. The embroidery was old and the color of the satin had faded, but the Guanyin statue embroidered on it was still soft and shiny. It can be seen that
The skill level of this hair embroidery.
That afternoon, Shen Xiu looked at the embroidered statue for a full hour.
She had heard from her master before that hair embroidery, which was lost in ancient times, was originally used by religious women to show their piety by cutting off their own green silk and using it to embroider the hair of Buddha statues.
This is early hair embroidery. In the entire embroidery, only Guanyin’s hair is embroidered.
It was only later that many skillful embroiderers used processing techniques such as washing and dyeing to turn green silk into embroidery thread comparable to silk embroidery thread, and then embroidered exquisite embroidery pieces.
These embroideries are not limited to Buddha statues, but also include portraits and landscape paintings.
The embroidery of the Guanyin statue in front of Shen Xiu is the hair embroidery of the later period. Whether it is Guanyin's hair, eyebrows, eyes, or even clothes, they are all embroidered with hair. It can be called a masterpiece.
The only pity is that Shen Xiu can barely identify the stitches used in this hair embroidery through the stitches on it. But it is impossible to treat the hair into smooth and smooth embroidery threads, and also dye the embroidery threads into different colors.
Think about it.
This method of washing and dyeing hair is generally a secret that is not passed down, and with the loss of hair embroidery, this treatment technique is probably also lost.
However, Shen Xiu still had some luck. Maybe somewhere in the south of the Yangtze River, some people still had such a secret method.
It's just that she can't leave to go to Jiangnan for the time being, so she can only put down this idea.