Hirondelles in Gaïa
The boldest of our Hirondelles colourways, Gaïa features a striking Travertine-style wash over a background of Baize Silk. Details are rendered in blacks and greys with soft iridescent highlights.
Alternative colourways
SKU CODE: LQ-001-05
STANDARD: Hand Painted and Hand Embroidered Dyed silk with paper backing
REPEAT: Non-Repeating
PANEL WIDTH: 915mm
PANEL HEIGHT: N/A
Each painted panel begins its life as a length of raw silk which we size with a natural adhesive so that it receives paint without bleeding. We often brush the silk with iridescent pearl washes to add further lustre before backing with traditional rice paper. This forms the extraordinary canvas on which our artists work their magic.
For our embroidery, we use unspun silk floss, which in its un-dyed state is so fine as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. It is dyed by hand in small batches, and our embroiderers have thousands of shades at their disposal. It is not uncommon for an embroiderer to work with six tones of the same colour, which he or she will carefully combine to create subtle shifts in hue.
All our embroidery takes place in Suzhou, China. This remarkable city was the birthplace of silk over 4700 years ago and remains the silk capital of the world.