Embroidery is a technique for decorating textiles by using a needle to apply a thread, or sometimes a wire, to a ground cloth. The designs that may be produced in a variety of stitches are sometimes embellished with beads, feathers or precious stones. It is an art that has been practiced throughout the world, by amateurs and professionals, since at least the fifth century BCE. The illustrated lecture surveys embroidery and its makers: historical masterpieces commissioned for cathedrals and palaces; embroidery as a domestic pursuit in polite Western society; and the expression of symbolism in patterns stitched for significant stages of the human life cycle in traditional societies still connected to ancient beliefs and superstitions.
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