On a trip to London some time ago I was fortunate to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum to look at the embroidery. While making my way to the Textile rooms, I came across the embroidery of Martha Edlin, a 17th century embroiderer. I was astonished by her skill and the complexity of the work she accomplished as a very young girl and I wrote about that visit in my my blog post Embroideries at the V&A.
Having seen Martha's work I was interested to learn that Tricia Wilson Nguyen has made a detailed study of Martha and is now offering a short on-line course titled Martha Edlin - her life and embroidery. Not only does Tricia focus on Martha's remarkable embroidery, but she sheds more light on the situation of women at that point in history.
Besides Tricia's video lectures, there is also a small free silk project that you can choose to do as well as have access to a filament silk video. Tricia points out that to comply with V&A licensing restraints, access to the course is limited to 31 days. Find out more about what you can expect from the course and make a booking on Tricia's blog Thistle Threads here. $5 dollars of the course fee will go to the V&A, specifically for detailed photography of embroideries that they hold and that are not on permanent display. This should give us all more opportunity to admire and study some truly exceptional embroidery.
