Why the Ancient Craft of Embroidery Is as Relevant Today as Ever

July 30 is World Embroidery Day, and there has never been a better time to find creative modern personal connection to the ancient and beautiful craft. Embroidery has a list of known health benefits: it lowers stress, calms breathing and improves mindfulness and focus. On a cognitive level, the needle arts have been shown to improve motor coordination, in addition to the immediately apparent brain boon of providing a detox from doomscrolling and other digital plagues. In addition, there is the satisfaction of having completed a pretty project and mastered a skill. This year is an especially exciting one for the art form thanks to the forthcoming display of the Bayeux Tapestry (which is actually wool thread embroidery) at the British Museum in London.

People have been embroidering since textiles have been around. Examples have been found in Egyptian tombs going back to 2000 B.C.E. For many centuries, it was one of the few means of socially approved creative expression for women, also serving as a community gathering point and link between generations sharing knowledge. For example, Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror, has been named historically as the possible mother of the Bayeux Tapestry. Matilda’s human children did not get along with each other, but the Bayeux Tapestry has held together splendidly for nearly 1,000 years.

There is a list of places that teach the craft to beginners and advanced alike in ways vastly removed from the familiar American needlepoint kit. Methods include crewelwork, goldwork, blackwork, and silk shading, with the latter three style being what their names describe. Students of the Royal School of Needlework get to take their classes in a real live palace: Henry VIII’s Hampton Court, just outside London, although options are available online and occasionally around themes geared to special locations such as Windsor Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The School has an impressive pedigree: it was founded in 1872, and its studio team and teachers worked the embroideries for King Charles III’s Coronation and the Royal Opera House.

Hand & Lock, located in the heart of London, has been around for over a century longer, today offering bespoke embroidery to couturiers, royalty, interior decorators, and costume designers seeking period-authentic ornament where only the best will do. Their associated school offers live classes year-round, but there are web courses that teach tambour beading and goldwork (which uses metal thread, wire, and beads) to create designs with the same methods used in Hand & Lock’s astonishing commissions.

Paris’s École Lesage is associated with Maison Lesage, best known as the embroiderer for Chanel Haute Couture and ready-to-wear, and has classes in Paris ranging from a few hours for beginner-geared beading to specialized couture techniques. And if location is a sticking point, Britain’s The Crewel Company has kits, often accompanied by video courses, that use museum pieces and centuries-old styles for creations from a charming hand-sized elephant to a 91.5 by 62.5 inch bed hanging (a needlework Mount Everest).

Knitting is another way to enter into the fiber arts, and it offers similar productive zen benefits without necessitating any destination plans beyond drawers and coat pockets. This beginner kit from Purl Soho uses pure, deliciously soft merino wool.