Founded in 2010 by Dr Lynn Hulse and Nicola Jarvis, Ornamental Embroidery specialises in the teaching and designing of historic needlework, and runs workshops in museums, art galleries and historic houses across the UK. Students are introduced to the history of embroidered textiles through lectures and the study of original examples, and are trained in a variety of stitch techniques, including canvas, crewel, gold work, silk shading, blackwork, whitework, raised work and appliqué. All of the projects undertaken are informed by detailed object-based research. Our aim is to help students actively engage with history by re-creating past practice, using appropriate materials and stitch techniques in order to appreciate the society, economy and culture of earlier periods.  

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In 2015, Lynn took over the management of Ornamental Embroidery and has teamed up with some of the best tutors in the UK – designer/makers like Nicola Jarvis and Jenny Adin-Christie and scholar/practitioners like Jacqui Carey and Alexandra Lester-Makin – to deliver in-depth workshops exploring the development of hand stitch from the Anglo-Saxon period to Art Nouveau. 

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Lynn has focused on embroidered textiles since 2004. Former Archivist at the Royal School of Needlework and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Lynn is a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society. She has published widely on historic needlework and is the editor of The Needles Excellency: English raised embroidery (2108) and May Morris: Art and Life (2017), longlisted for the 2018 William M. B. Berger prize in British Art History. Lynn is currently researching the development of Art Embroidery in the second half of the nineteenth century. Her book on the early history of the Royal School of Art Needlework will be published next year.