What is Embroidery?
The beauty of needle and thread is truly a wonderful form of art. This art of embroidery has been popular all throughout the globe for ages. Even in current times, many creative artists still continue to carry out this practice, bringing their creativity and imagination to life.
The handcrafted decoration on a piece of material done by threads or yarns with needles is known as embroidery. Embroidery may also use other materials such as beads, sequins or pearls. These embroidered pieces may be seen done in all sorts of obvious places like shirts, jeans, bags and modern artists have also explored other unique materials like metal embroidery.
The History of Embroidery
When we say embroidery has been there for ages, we mean it. Practice of embroidery can be traced to as far back as 30,000 BCE from the Cro-Magnon days. It has existed in different forms ever since the existence of fabrics.
By the 14th century BCE, embroidery was important in ancient Egypt where hand stitched treasures were buried with pharaohs like ceremonial tunics, decorative leopard skin and decorated collars.
Early embroidery examples can also be found in China (between 5th and 3rd century BC), Sweden (viking age), and throughout Europe (Year 1000). Most of the time these highly decorated pieces displayed high status, power and wealth.
The Purpose of Embroidery
There was a time when fabric was too expensive to make so individuals used to try to make what they wanted by themselves. This technique of DIYing still exists till date.
It was a folkart in many regions made with materials accessible to non-professionals. While there was a time these colourful different stitches were a pastime to housewives all over the globe, there were also entitlement to men in some regions.
Now, in the 21st century, embroidery is easier than ever with the help of machines, but there is something special and more creative about hand embroidered works. And there are so many different types of stitches to choose from- the possibilities are endless. Here are some popular techniques-
- Crewel embroidery
- Cross-stitch
- Blackwork embroidery
- Stumpwork embroidery
- Thread painting
- Freestyle
How To Start Embroidery?
You need very basic supplies to start embroidery, like thread (many start with stranded cotton threads, also known as embroidery floss), fabric (which depends on what sort of embroidery you will be doing), needle (size depends on the fabric used), scissors, hoops and great lighting, that’s it and you’re ready to go! You can start with some basic stitch patterns like- chain stitch, stem stitch, split stitch, backstitch, french knot, satin stitch or blanket knot!
Conclusion
Embroidery today is nothing like it was in the past. Designs may now be input into softwares which leads the machines to create the exact same pattern on the fabrics. Maybe the style and technique has changed over time but the use and purpose of embroidery has remained the same. Embroidery has always been and will be a medium for us to decorate our lives with.
And if you’re interested in learning the art of embroidery, you can contact Yhtach in stitches. We will craft the best embroidery patterns for you, which will be trendy and you’ll soon be making your designs!