The Art of Embroidery: Studies in Needlework with Diane Lewandowski

Diane Lewandowski is the proprieter of Heritage Shoppe, a website “…devoted to promoting embroidery in all its forms.” She stitched her first stich at age five. Her mother taught her a stitch and she completed her first project – a red rabbit outline. And off she went. She caught the bug to make things.

She’s studied with masters in white work, the intricate embroidery characterized by white stiches on white material. She took lessons through the mail and met other embroiderers on the internet. She took lessons from Italy in open work and in schwalm, another form of white work, from Germany. Along the way, she developed her expertise in surface embroideries, such as ayrshire. Ms. Lewandowski is now the Chair of The Master Craftsman Program in Surface Embroidery offered by the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. She sets the standards for the certification program. If you need to know what makes an embroidered piece a work of fine art, she’s the artist who can tell you.

Ms. Lewandowski recognizes that hand embroidery is a lost art. “There was a resurgence in interest twelve to fifteen years ago, but that’s leveled off in the last few years,” she says. Possible reasons for the loss of interest include the availability of machines that do more intricate work and the amount of time involved in completing a hand embroidered piece.

“It can take months, depending on the size of the project,” Lewandowski says. “And it’s very intense. You can get carpel tunnel or wreck your fingers.”

Hand care might be another reason for the decline in interest. She describes “chikan embroidery” as a lost art. “It was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s taught to kids in India at ages four and five because you can’t teach an adult. You must train hands when they’re little. And it has almost disappeared. It has disappeared,” she says. “The designs are East Indian. Gorgeous stuff.”

There are, fortunately, a select few who are still interested in the art and tradition of hand embroidery. Thus, Heritage Shoppe. Just browse through the gallery to get a feel for the amazing work people are pouring their time and energy into. It’s truly stunning.

Dianne Lewandowski is currently teaching a correspondence course through the Embroiderers’ Guild of America in the Australian embroidery technique of using wool threads on wool grounds. The result is “Molly,” the bear in the photo. Students use dollmaking techniques, as well, to make the bear by hand and machine.

To learn more about embroidery arts, read Ms. Lewandowski’s Primer.