Mexican Otomi Embroidery

Mexican Otomi Embroidery

Mexican artisans have been creating colourful textiles for thousands upon thousands of years – often identifying the maker’s ethnic group or village. Mexican Otomi or the more simplified Tenangos embroidery, is a vibrant celebration of riotous colour,...
Book Review:  A Single Thread

Book Review: A Single Thread

A Single Thread is a work of historical fiction set between the two world wars, just as Hitler is gaining unprecedented power and adulation. The story revolves around the life of Violet Speedwell, a so-called ‘Surplus Women’, who lost not only her elder...
Beetle Elytra: Nature’s Ornament

Beetle Elytra: Nature’s Ornament

The hard outer casings of the Jewel beetle, naturally mimic gem-like precious treasures in terms of utter brilliance and beauty, through their hardy, metallic, emerald iridescence – used for centuries as decoration or embellishment. But in many cultures, they...
Book Review:  The Tenth Gift

Book Review: The Tenth Gift

Jane Johnson is a prolific writer of books for both adults and children as well as being a fiction book editor. A trip to North Africa in 2005 investigating a long-buried family legend about the abduction of a family from a Cornish church by Barbary pirates in 1625,...
Embroidered Dragon Robes

Embroidered Dragon Robes

Close your eyes and imagine the sound a cascading silk garment makes in movement. Imagine the feel of exquisite embroidery – the silken smoothness of the long, colourful threads and the unmistakable texture of couched gold and silver, pearls, and other rich...