The Stitch Safari Podcast

Medieval Guilds were formed to promote and protect the art of embroidery, a major trade in the Middle Ages.

In today’s episode I’m looking through some fascinating information on Medieval embroidery worked in nunneries and monasteries, the providers of an honourable profession for highly born women along with those with a true passion and calling for the religious life.  

Today the connection I want to explore, deals with the art of a stitched or woven narrative in Medieval textiles – a world in images , to see if I can justify design parallels and influences going back as far as I can.

There are so many ways to approach Colour – it’s something I love working with and I’ve researched a great deal, but I have to say, looking at it from a Medieval perspective is very different and absolutely fascinating.  

Embroidery is and will always be a reflection and mirroring of cultures, fashions and styles.  Just look to the many excavated finds throughout the world, and you’ll see some of the most beautiful and mesmerising treasures from this time.  It’s no coincidence then, that there’s a similarity of styles and symbols, re-interpreted throughout medieval design and needlecraft.  Design is an influencer. ...

  In this episode, I’ll be focussing on the final four of the eight styles that impacted on Medieval Art.  I like to call them The Influencers.  In Part 1 I covered Romanesque, Viking, Byzantine and Gothic Art.  Now in Part 2, I’m featuring Islamic, Celtic, Carolingian and Ottonian Art.  Together these eight styles synthesised into that sometimes ambiguous term ‘Medieval Art, Art of the Middle Age...

Medieval Art - a period when embroidery was King.  It’s time, fellow followers of needlework and stitch to embrace the stunning aesthetic of Medieval art and embroidery. 

Believed to bring good luck, the rare byssus cloth is extremely light and warm and is made from fibres harvested from giant molluscs.  One of its remarkable properties is the way it shines when exposed to sunlight - it glows with an unbelievable richness.  

Do you remember that feeling of comfort and warmth from a favourite hand-knitted woollen jumper?  Each interlinked stitch enveloped us with hand-made love and utilized one of the world’s most used natural fibres.  Wool.

Cotton, that soft, fluffy, staple plant fibre, was well known and used from ancient times.  It grew wild, it travelled the globe naturally, via its salt-resistant seeds, finally becoming a domesticated crop when societies recognized they could live and stay in one place, year in and year out.  

In this episode, I explore some of the figurative illustrations of the word stitch and its component family that have enriched our daily lives and literature. 

The word silk conjures the exotic romanticism of The Far East and The Silk Road, with a history replete with the secrets of sericulture, caravan trade routes, and the expansion of silk production throughout the ancient world.

Meander through history and pre-history and delve into the wonderful world of fibre.  This episode sheds some light on one of the big four natural plant fibres, flax, which like the needle, opened endless possibilities for commerce and craft.  It’s a tantalizing story.

The Stitch Safari Podcast is a brand-new fortnightly expedition into the art of the needle, stitch and embroidery, trekking through its development, applications and innovations. Hosted by Australian textile artist, Cathy Jack Coupland this will be a light-hearted, informative tour of the art of the needle.

The hand sewing needle was a precious resource, of global importance, but at some point in time, it’s utilitarian use for garment construction also embraced surface decoration and embellishment or, in other words, embroidery – and gave birth to the art of the needle.  

In this episode, I’m going to start our trek with a connection between Leonardo da Vinci, The Ceremony of the Broken Needle, and The Needle and Thread Gaudy, plus a few other interesting stitch-related legends.