Opus anglicanum, or English work is very fine needlework carried out for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing from about 1100 – about 1350. It was all about reflecting ‘the beauty of holiness‘. The historical aspects of decorative needlework is both diverse and rich and there is still a lot we can discover from various fragments found in China, South America as well as in Egypt, where it is estimated they were enjoying the craft some 5,000 years ago. Modern textile historians deduce a great deal about a society, its traditions and folklore from such fragments. Some scholars observe that the love of colour produced in enamels, metals and glass was also an inspiration for various types of embroidered textiles in Ancient Egypt, which then flowed through the societies of ancient Greece and Rome mostly from this tradition ■
