Wu Minhua regards himself as a special kind of painter.

The 47-year-old man creates a wide range of works, all in stunning detail. However, unlike other painters, Wu uses needles instead of brushes, and threads rather than paint.

Wu is a handicraft master in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and the only male artisan involved in Hangzhou machine embroidery.

Since ancient times, women have done embroidery. Accordingly, the craft is also addressed as "nuhong" (means female's work).

But Wu doesn't feel embarrassed about doing a woman's work.

"No man can compete with me in this regard. I am the only one and I really enjoy the feeling," he says.

Now, the handicraftsman works at the city's grand masters building, where nearly 20 handicraft master gather to create their works of art.

Wu's workshop displays more than 10 art works, including his mentor's. Many of them feature pets. They are so lifelike, it looks as if they might jump directly out of the frame and run to their owners.

A pedal sewing machine is placed in the corner. Nearby, about 100 colored thread rolls are piled on a table.

"To be precise, Hangzhou machine embroidery is a semi-handmade craft," he explains. "Unlike computer embroidery which has simple design and rough stitching, it still involves a lot of manual work so that the art works appear to have fine stitching and abundant colors."

Due to a shortage of material, Wu has to dye and roll the threads by himself.

It is a bit strange to see the master take off his shoes, but there is a good reason. Without shoes he can control the pedals better.

Employed by the Hangzhou Handicraft Research Institution in 1977, Wu was assigned to study machine embroidery rather than stone carving.

"I felt lucky because of the arrangement, at least the learning environment of machine embroidery is much quieter and cleaner than stone carvings," he says with a smile.

The young man fell in love with his craft and threw himself into the work.

In 1982, he took a refresher course at the China Academy of Art in order to improve his painting and design ability.

Six years later, as the only male candidate of machine embroidery in East China, Wu, along with five other experts specializing in creating pigeons and fish, was selected to join a government project of supporting Africa in Gabon.

"We took 16 sewing machines to Gabon, as well as plenty of needles and threads. Considering the inconvenient transportation, I even took a bike with me," he recalls.

Wu's task was to teach local women how to embroider. According to Wu, there is a high demand for needlework in Gabon. The country's traditional clothes require exquisite embroidery patterns on the neckbands and cuffs.

Despite the language barriers, the Chinese master had no problem teaching them how to do it. The key point to machine embroidery, he says, is neither color usage nor stitch making, it is about how to control the sewing machine.

"Your hands should be synchronized with your feet, otherwise the threads will frequently break," he explains.

At the beginning, he and his translator got on their knees and put their hands on the students' feet to help them feel when to stop the machine.

During the 2-year project, Wu trained more than 30 local women aged between 20 and 40.