Baby Carriers

Before the child arrives in a Miao village, the needles are already busy. Chinese minority baby carriers are among the most lavishly worked textiles of southwest China. In the mountain villages of Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi, Miao, Dong, Shui, Buyi, Zhuang and Ge Jia women made them for a child’s arrival, often with the mother’s family, embroidering silk on cotton with butterflies, birds, chrysanthemums, coins and the coiled revolving-thunder pattern. The motifs were protective; the Miao honor the butterfly as the ancestral mother, and a carrier wrapped the baby in blessings as well as cloth. Satin stitch, couched braid, appliqué and batik often share a single piece.

Framed, a carrier panel reads like a small painting, rich at close range. Hung in a nursery, a hallway or a dressing room, it carries saturated color into a pale space. A blessing, expertly stitched.