Cream & Tan “Three Friends of Winter” Accent Pillow
This is a one-of-a-kind custom accent pillow. It is a very elegant & beautiful pillow with a classic Chinese theme, called, "Three Friends of Winter."
The three “friends” refers to: pine, bamboo, and plum. This traditional theme was started by Lin Jingxi, 1241–1310 (the Song dynasty). From, “The Clear Mountain Collection,” he wrote, “For his residence, earth piled to form a hill and a hundred plum trees, which along with lofty pines and tall bamboo comprise the friends of winter were planted.”
Since then, many artists have created designs based upon these three plants that thrive together — even in the winter. These three plants show a surprising vitality. They have a natural ability to flourish in harsh conditions — earning them much praise.
This pillow is designed to look similar to a design by the Chinese master Zhao Mengjian. (ca. 1199–1264) His design is described as an elegant, refined and tranquil composition.
There is a combination of pine needles that crisscross — dark bamboo leaves that poke out the bottom — and lines of delicate bamboo blossoms.
Beth chose to make these blossoms white. If you place a custom order request for this design on another item, the blossoms may be another color, such as light or dark pink.
There are two common forms of text that could be used with this design. One would translate: “Pine, Bamboo, Plum.” The other translates: “Three Friends of Winter.” This design uses the second translation.
The characters are: 歲寒三友
The first character is: 歲 suì (pronounced, swee). It means: year, years old, age, harvest.
The second character is: 寒 hán (pronounced, han). It means: cold, wintry, chilly, poor, to tremble.
The third character is: 三 sān (pronounced, san). This means: 3.
The fourth character is: 友 yǒu (pronounced, yo, as in, “yo ho ho”). This means: friend, companion, fraternity.
Together, the four characters in the phrase translates as: “Three Friends of Winter.”
(If you would like to check the translation for yourself, the website archchinese is recommended.)
Red is a traditional color for the text. For custom orders you may request a different text color.
Consider this idea. If you have two close friends, you may wish to place a custom order for 3 matching pillows. This would be a wonderful gift for the three of you.
The type of calligraphy used — its “font” — is a simplified font that has nice curves, is elegant, and digitizes well. This is not a machine font built into an embroidery machine. Each character has been digitized by hand. Each character's strokes actually stitch out in the correct order as if a professional Chinese calligrapher was painting them.
To summarize, this pillow combines, elegance, beauty, pine, bamboo, plum, and a nice thought of ancient Chinese philosophy.
This design would be great for totes, bags, purses, pillows and sweatshirts. This pillow's size is approximately 12″ x 16″ x 4″.
The front center panel uses cream upholstery suede-like fabric with the embroidered design, and a tan green suede-like fabric on each side of the center panel and on the back. Note the decorative edging on each side of the center panel.
The fabrics have a nice, soft, texture and feel.
Inside we have used — as always — a new, soft, high quality pillow insert.
This design has a high stitch count and has a very tactile feel. Numerous layers gives realism and a nice depth to the design.
Beth created the pillow design. She uses great computerized embroidery and sewing machines for the bulk of the work, then hand sews the final side shut.
This accent pillow would be a great gift for a person:
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This pillow's size is approximately 12″ x 16″ x 4″.
Cottons, Polyesters
This pillow includes a new, soft insert — which is hand-sewn inside.
This design is great for: totes, bags, purses, pillows and sweatshirts.
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