Perpetually making: The Hand Embroidery of Hannah Mansfield

Hannah Mansfield has been working as a freelance embroiderer for close to a decade, this talk will focus on Hannah’s journey as a professional hand embroiderer, how her work has developed in this time, feature the highlights of her career and serve as inspiration for those interested in specialist hand embroidery skills.

In her career, Hannah has particularly focused on the specialised hand embroidery techniques of goldwork and tambour beading. In this talk Hannah will explain details of these techniques and how she uses them to embroider her designs, accompanied by many examples of projects she has created with them.

Goldwork is focused on the use of wires and metallic threads. Hannah has aimed to use the traditional goldwork technique in a new way, finding success with her development of three dimensional goldwork flowers. Hannah will cover how she utilises the varied finishes of goldwork wires to create contrast within her designs, how she achieves a variety of textures with different applications of the wires and the technical aspects of creating three dimensional flowers in goldwork.

Using her three dimensional goldwork techniques, at the beginning of Hannah’s career, she entered the Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery, creating four sculptural goldwork flower pieces. Hannah won first prize in the textile art category and she will discuss how she developed her entry and why this caught the eye of judges. She will also talk about how this experience kickstarted her career.

Tambour is a specialist beading technique which is commonly used in French haute couture. Hannah will discuss how she came to start using the technique which is not particularly well used in the UK and how this status as one of the few British professional hand embroiderers working with the tambour technique has lead to a number of career opportunities. This will cover her authorship of the book, Tambour Beading: Techniques and Projects, which was published in 2024 and remains the most detailed English language book on the tambour technique currently in publication.

Hannah will explain the foundations of the tambour technique and how the simple chain stitch that the hook creates can be used for a variety of more advanced applications, including appliqué, 3D wired pieces and cutwork. She will discuss how she selects and applies particular beads and sequins to create the desired effects within her designs and show examples of the varied items onto which she has applied tambour embroidery, beyond its typical application in fashion.

Hannah will discuss her role at The King’s Foundation as lead tutor on the CHANEL and The King's Foundation's Métiers D'Arts Fellowship at Highgrove Traditional Crafts, in which she trains a new generation of embroiderers to enter the haute couture embroidery industry.