Ruyi-shaped Hand-dyed-blue Satin Cloud Shoulder with Motifs of Auspicious Animals Front

Embroidery techniques such as three blue shades and seed stitches were applied in this item. Named for its palette, the three blue shades technique which is often seen on garments of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 AD) employs threads in multiple (“three” in the name means plural as opposed to its literal meaning) shades of blue, or in rare cases a few other colors are also used to set off the effect but blue remaining the main tone, to create motifs with whatever stitches.
As far as this item is concerned, the motifs were outlined with white thread stitches while seed stitches combined with three blue shades were used to fill in the blanks. The ears and tails of lions were depicted with gold threads.