15
April 2026

Igniting the Rainbow

Welcome to The Arts Society Runnymede
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 - 10:30
The Hythe Centre
Thorpe Road Staines TW18 3HD
Online Event

DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENTS IN TEXTILES

This talk takes us from some of the earliest embroidery in this country from the 10th century through the height of English work, Opus Anglicanum to the embroidered outfits of our Tudor monarchs through to the seventeenth century when new design ideas arrived from India and China, and new techniques emerged such as raised embroidery, through to the growth in silk shading with the growth in dye shades, then to Berlin wool work in the 19th century and the dawn of art embroidery by the likes of William Morris and Walter Crane in the late 19th century.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Susan Kay-Williams

Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience and has been invited to lecture in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Taiwan as well as for the V&A and across the UK.