Unique techniques – the Finest Beadinging Embroidery Artwork
People who lived in the Da-chen village in the early days were women. Most of the women tried to make some contribution to improve the family finances by doing the beadinging embroidery through domestic homemade productions. That was also the reason why most women obtained amazing beadinging embroidery techniques to make a handmade masterpiece. Beadinging embroidery is often used to embellish wedding dresses and accessories, pillows, and shoes. All the beadinging embroidery artwork they made is well-known worldwide because of the rich and varied textures. A beadinging embroidery named Mei-Gui Hand Embroidery and Beadinging Company in Young-huo is well-known for its beading embroidery designs even though the location of the shop remains mysteriously hard to find for some clients. A majority of Taiwanese celebrities come to the shop to shop for luxurious custom-made dresses such as Jolin Tsai, Jay Chou, Show Lo, Eva Xiao, Leehom Wang and A-mei because they appreciate the highest quality of the embroidery beadinged outfits.

In the year of 1985, they ran a shop named Mei-Gui Hand Embroidery and Beading Company. The shop is engaged in domestic and export sales.	The embroiderer, Mei-hua, is responsible for designing the patterns. She makes every effort to criticize the detail of the patterns because she wants every pattern to be 100% perfect.	Mei-lan is responsible for producing samples. No one is able to compare to her beading embroidery techniques.
Photo: Ms. Hu, Mei-hua

Upon visiting the shop a few days ago, one of the embroiderers there introduced us to a wide range of crystal beadings, crystal pearls, crystal fancy stones and sequins that they use to make the beading embroidery artwork. We were astonished. Consistently, they are engaged in offering a high performing array of embroidered beading work. Those embroidered beading dresses are so luxurious and gorgeous that we find it difficult to wait to wear one of the finest beading embroidery dresses on our wedding day more than 20 years later.

Da Chen beading embroidery, Star-studded
A Taiwanese celebrity, Teresa Teng.	A Taiwanese celebrity, Show Lo.	A Taiwanese celebrity, Jolin Tsai.	A Taiwanese celebrity, Elva Hsiao
Photo: Ms. Hu, Mei-hua

An interview with three embroiderers, Mei-gui, Mei-hua, and Mei-lan:
How long have you been learning how to make beading embroidery artwork? Who did you learn the skill from?
Ihave been learning how to beading on a certain fabric since I was six. I learned this unique skill directly from my mother. Whenever I finished homework after school, I had to help do the beading embroidery artwork with my mother and sister. It didn’t matter whether you were a boy or a girl in the family, beadinging was the most important family gathering after dinner. My family earned a salary by doing the beadinging and this was how we helped out with the family expenses when we were little.

Have you ever experienced any difficulties being an embroiderer?
Hand making is the toughest process. We need to turn an unrealistic idea into the real product with our bare hands. It always takes a lot of time and energy to cater to the specific preferences of the clients. Nowadays, more and more designers and clients ask for totally customized outfits to enable them to appeal to the public .The way we stitch beadings and crystals is associated with the appearance of the beading embroidered dresses. We have the responsibility to guarantee to our clients the consistency and quality every time such as an excellent finish, beautiful designs and patterns and appealing color combinations. Besides, we need to work against the clock to meet the deadline. What’s even worse, we sometimes have to work overnight.

What are your thoughts about preserving and passing on the beadinging skill?
Beadinging is very hard work. When doing beadinging, you have to sit on the chair for several hours with full attention. If you want to learn beadinging, you have to make sure you are passionate about it. People in the modern society have a lack of patience so they are not as productive as we are. Definitely, we would like to teach people the techniques if they are willing to learn. We hope that “beadinging” as a traditional handmade artwork can be preserved forever and be passed on to future generations.

Nowadays, things are made by machines instead of bare hands, what is the influence on your business?
Using machines to make clothes saves a lot of time and work but hand beading embroidery is irreplaceable. Our clients like handmade clothes. In addition, many Taiwanese celebrities like the outfits that we made. We are busy with drawing, designing, producing samples every day. According to the degree of difficulty and the feature of the costume, we either beading by ourselves or cooperate with some volunteers from the neighborhood.

What are the joys and pains of being a beading embroiderer?
We were all diagnosed with presbyopia earlier than people in other careers because our clients prefer much tinier beadings. All the hard work we devote will be worth it when it comes to the time we receive compliments from the clients. How much money we earn is not real a matter. It happened to us once. The Taiwanese famous singers, Jolin Tasi, asked us to remake the whole outfit with the same design and pattern that she bought from Hong Kong because she was totally disappointed with it. As long as our skill is appreciated, we will never regret to be a hand beading embroiderer. Some clients regard us as low-class labors and not reliable designers and embroiderers so they don’t show any respect to us. Also they are never satisfied with the outfits and ask for unreasonable modifications several times. However we still need to be patient with them. No matter what, we have strong confidence in our techniques without any doubt. Unfortunately the Taiwanese beadinging embroidery business is moving out to undeveloped counties such as Vietnam, China ( Guangzhou, Xiamen, Dongguan). Therefore we tend to reform our business, now we only focus on making delicate bridal dresses and luxurious customized outfits.

Visiting Mei-gui Workshop
This photo shows us how the shop looks.	Mei-hua has us take a quick look on her beading embroidery artwork.	All kinds of crystal beadings, crystal pearls, crystal fancy stones and sequins.
All kinds of beading embroidery	All kinds of beading embroidery: Evening dresses	All kinds of beading embroidery: Strings of beads
All kinds of crystal beadings, crystal pearls, crystal fancy stones and sequins.	Groom’s tuxedo in Da Chen	The pattern sketch of the beading embroidery
Photo by Film Crew of GSH,Photos are taken by Mei-hua