Embroidery
Decoration stitched with needle and thread into cloth or leather, from medieval gold-thread vestments and samplers to contemporary art.
1 work · 10 related artists
About
Embroidery adds pattern or pictures to a finished surface with a needle. Basic stitches such as satin stitch, chain stitch and cross stitch combine with couching, in which gold or silver threads are laid on top and tied down. Chinese embroiderers were working silk with great finesse more than two thousand years ago. In medieval England, workshops produced Opus Anglicanum, vestments so richly worked in gold thread that popes sought them. Indian zardozi and Palestinian cross-stitch dresses show distinct regional languages.
For centuries embroidery was part of domestic education, and girls stitched samplers of alphabets and verses. Artists since the 1970s have used that association deliberately. Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974–79) includes embroidered runners, Orly Cogan stitches over vintage linens, and Richard Saja embroiders monsters onto toile. Look closely at the density of stitches, the neatness of the reverse and the way metal threads catch light.
