Historical textiles meet textile historian Ingela Wahlberg at Victorian& Albert museum in London to see the exhibition Opus Anglicanum together.  Ingela have been guiding us around the exhibition all day and we are, and five hours later, still here.

Opus Anglicanum is a group of embroidery produced in England during the middle ages. Typical for the style is for liturgical use and shows biblical scenes, saints, bishops, scrolls, heraldic beasts and much more.  Materials used is floss silk, metal threads (both gold and silver), sometimes highlighting with tiny (!!) fresh water pearls. Embroidered on silk, compound twill, velvet or linen. If they are embroidered on linen the whole surface is covered with stitches. If they today show some linen, it is because the silk stitches have worn off. The most common techniques are underside couching and split stitch.

We will come back to the items exhibit here and give you a full report. The exhibition have got a photo restriction so we can’t share any photos from it.

The exhibition will be open until 5 February 2017 and we STRONGLY recommend you to go and se it. Last time some of these items were exhibit was in 1963 and before that 1905. So… it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Ingela, Amica, Maria