Estense Embroidery - Certificate Course Workshop.

This post arises from an Embroiderers' Guild of South Australia Certificate Workshop taken by Christine Bishop in January of this year. These monthly workshops are primarily for those enrolled in the Certificate Course, but any Guild member can attend. Those enrolled naturally get the first call on the teacher's time.

Estense embroidery hails from the Ferrara region of Italy and is based on the Graffito ceramics of that region in the Renaissance period. It has been documented and popularised by Elisabetta Holtzer, first in a 2007 book, now out of print, Ricamo Estense, which did have English translation by Jeanine Robertson, and then in a 2014 manual, Il manuale completo del ricamo estense which has only Italian text.

Christine had adapted a couple of designs for us to work on linen. I worked on a stylised flower and a leaf. The colours and designs are both from the Ferrarese ceramics. The embroidery uses a limited range of stitches, with the drawn thread work typically inside the surface stitchery.





It was lovely to work and I continued to play with it long after the class. I didn't write about it sooner, because I wanted to do more of it, and to turn my piece of linen into something usable.

On an impulse I took it to England with me and found it worked well as a pick-up/put down project. I found the level of concentration worked well to take my mind of time passing and focus on the stitch.

I worked a flower and two leaves, then folded the linen to form a small bag and hand-stitched the back and bottom seams.

I then folded a hem at the top and worked drawn thread eyelets to hold the hem and take a drawstring.


I made a twisted cord drawstring, When I got home I ironed it, and voila, a pretty little linen bag.

Christine is offering a two-day class in Estense Embroidery at the Guild in August, available to  both members and non-members. I have enrolled!