Gao used the digital embroidery machine in the eStudio to create a Hmong story cloth showing the story of her mother's journey during the Vietnam War. She developed the embroidery file from a colorful photoshop document. She imported this as a jpeg image and then filled the color blocks with stitch commands and textures that supported the story and subject of the piece. This piece was especially successful because of the care Gao put into selecting her color palette. The lower density of stitches on the path allows a very nice graceful under- layer to become apparent. She still has to cut some of the jump stitches and add some print transfer black text, but this picture shows some great possibilities of the digital embroidery machine!
