2007.34.1

This large pieced and embroidered textile was used primarily as a wall hanging. It has a muslin sleeve stitched to one side of the back, so that it can be hung. The front features black cloth that has been densly cross stitched in decorative patterns: red, blue, white, green, yellow, bright pink, lime green; the background black cloth is left unembroidered in many places, so that the black becomes part of the design motifs. The center is one piece of embroidered cloth with a border of white cross stitching on a black field, then pieced sashing (borders) of white, brown and blue cloth; then another border of the embroidered work, trimmed at the edges with white cross stitch on a black field, then white, brown and blue cloth; a final border of embroidered work and another series of white brown and blue cloth strips, finally edged with a larger brown cloth border. The natural colored cloth backing is of poorer quality cloth than that used on the face.

This piece was purchased by Mrs. Briscoe from a Head Start mother at a Stockton area conference on Young Children. The young mother who made the piece did not speak English. Mrs. Briscoe believes that the piece could have been made in a camp in Thailand, since many of the pieces that were sold in California in the early 1980s had been made in the camps and brought to the USA to sell. Mrs. Briscoe paid the asking price, $90.00. Over the years Mrs. Briscoe collected other Hmong pieces "[enjoying] their work and spirit."

Used: Hmong | June Briscoe