The Japanese Embroidery Exhibit at the Albin Polasek Museum

I had seen that there was a Japanese Embroidery exhibit at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden in Winter Park, FL, and made a note for us to make sure we took a look while we were there. Well, were we in for a surprise.

The exhibit, Japanese Embroidery: A Journey of Tradition and Innovation, features the work of Winter Park resident Karyn Plater, whose LinkedIn page describes her as a “Traditional Japanese Silk and Metal Embroidery Artist.”

We arrived at the museum and were delighted to find that she was actually on hand discussing her works, and it was fascinating!

When we bought our tickets for a tour of the Polasek museum, the attendant pointed out that the artist featured in the embroidery exactly was actually in the exhibit talking to some other visitors.

We think a private club getting a public walk-through of her work, but it took us a bit to sort that out, and so even though we felt a little bit like we were sharing someone else’s experience, we were also too enthralled to care!

We spent so much time with Plater and her demonstrations there we had to practically sprint through the sculpture gardens we had actually come to see because we ran out of time!

Plater is a proficient of the traditional Japanese embroidery known as nihon shishu. Per the museum’s description of the exhibit, nihon shishu is “characterized by intricate traditional designs of silk and metallic threads, stitched onto the finest Japanese silk fabric.” The thousand-year-old technique is as beautiful as it is challenging, and is considered to be one of the most challenging forms of embroidery in the world.

Plater is respected as one of the most accomplished practitioners of this technique. The exhibit had many examples of her finished works on display, which were jaw-dropping. She demonstrated the great time and patience required to roll individual silk threads together to get the desired effects.

The exhibit runs through January 7, 2024, but if you can’t get to it, have no fear! Plater is a certified sensei (one of only 15 in the United States!), teaching nishon shishu to students at her home studio.

Also on display were some of her students’ works.  All pictured items in this post are by Plater, unless otherwise noted.

_{The cover photo is Final Dress Up – Autumn Leaves.}