Tassels - A Vanishing Art with Elizabeth Ashdown

Passementerie - the art of decorative trimmings and embellishments - is one of Britain's rarest crafts, now listed on the Red List of Endangered Crafts. This two-day course offers a rare opportunity to learn it directly from one of only a handful of practitioners still working in the UK today.

Over two immersive days, you'll learn techniques that trace back centuries - the same methods once used to embellish the palaces of Europe - and apply them to contemporary tassel design. This class is a hands-on exploration of how an endangered craft can be reborn in fresh, modern forms.

You'll make three distinct styles of key tassel, each built on traditional wooden tassel moulds. Working from a curated palette of high quality cotton yarns, you'll choose your own colourways, shaping each tassel to your own aesthetic while mastering the precise hand techniques including mould covering, skirt construction, ruff making, and cord work that define authentic passementerie.

You'll leave with three complete, beautifully finished tassels and a grounding in a centuries old craft.

Learning at the Royal School of Needlework places this course within one of the world's most respected homes of textile heritage - the perfect setting to study a technique so few now carry forward.

Whether you're a textile maker looking to add a rare specialism to your practice, or simply drawn to beautiful, tactile work with real historical depth, this course offers the chance to learn an endangered art form from one of its last remaining custodians.