Episode 25: Polymer Clay & Artists
Handmade History
This episode is brought to you by Sculpey. Are you curious to try out polymer clay? Are you a polymer clay artist or enthusiast? We have a special offer for you from Sculpey, the original polymer clay company. Use code HANDMADE25 to get 25% off your entire purchase on . If you aren’t sure where to begin, Sculpey III clay is the perfect polymer clay for beginners. It comes in almost fifty colors and is easy to mold and shape into fun creations. You can also buy a multipack of Sculpey III clay, including sets of the Classic colors, Brights, Pastels, and Naturals. These sets are an...
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Episode 24: Blackwork Embroidery
Handmade History
We're doing a giveaway! To celebrate our & with Melissa Galbraith of MCreativeJ, we are giving away one of Melissa’s books, . If you would like to enter the giveaway, visit . You’ll see the giveaway post pinned right at the top and you can comment and enter there. If you’re not on Instagram, no worries! Just send us an email with your name and let us know that you’d like to enter the giveaway. You can email us at . This giveaway closes on December 1, 2025. This week, we are talking about blackwork, a type of counted embroidery that typically uses a special stitch called the...
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Episode 23: Mimeographs & More
Handmade History
This episode is brought to you by our Patreon page: visit and sign up to get our free posts! You'll be the first to know when an episode is live. Explore more on each topic with videos, photos, and links to research rabbit holes. This week also marks the launch of our first collaboration: the Wild Pansy Stumpwork Stitch Along! Pre-order your kit to make a beautiful stumpwork pansy designed by Melissa Galbraith of MCreativeJ. A PDF pattern is also available. Both include an exclusive history article from Handmade History. Then, join us for a stitch along in March. Visit to pre-order your or ...
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Episode 22: From Morojo to Yaya Han: The History of Cosplay
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns. Folkwear – Where history meets your hands. Visit and use code HANDMADE20 for 20% off your purchase. Code is good through the end of 2025! Cosplay might make you think of shiny spandex and elaborate makeup--but did you know it got its start in 1939? Morojo (pronounced mo-roy-oh) was the first ever sci-fi fan to create a costume for a con: a dress that converted into a cape and romper. This "costume of the future" inspired other fans to start making their own costumes, and soon the masquerade or costume contest was a fixture at cons around the country....
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Episode 21: Hairwork, Victorian & Otherwise
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns. Folkwear – Where history meets your hands. Visit and use code HANDMADE20 for 20% off your purchase. Code is good through the end of 2025! "Hairwork" probably makes you think of intricate Victorian mourning jewelry and silky sculpted hair under glass. We take a broad view of this craft and talk about hairwork from ancient times (such as false beards made of metal) to modern day (the fabulous wigs Queen Charlotte wears in Bridgerton). We also share the varieties of hairwork that were made in the US from pre-colonial times (hair cord used to hang canteens...
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Episode 20: Esther Inglis
Handmade History
Sponsored by MCreativeJ: Visit today and raise your embroidery to new heights! Esther Inglis was a skilled book artist, calligrapher and embroiderer who lived at the same time as Shakespeare. She created roughly 60 miniature handwritten copies of printed books and gifted them to nobles and royals (including Queen Elizabeth) to gain political and economic favors. Join us as we discuss her life, her books, and the complex patronage system that she worked in. The child of French Huguenot emigrants to England and then Scotland, Inglis was educated in calligraphy by her mother and French by her...
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Episode 19: Historical Low & Zero-Waste Garments
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns. Folkwear – Where history meets your hands. Visit Folkwear.com and use code HANDMADE20 for 20% off your purchase. Code is good through the end of 2025! Up until relatively recently, when factory-manufactured fabric became readily available, many garments around the world were naturally low and zero-waste. People who spent days (or months!) creating fabric (or processing animal skin) did not typically throw away pieces of it. Many cultures developed clever techniques to use up all of the material they created, to provide ease and comfort to the wearer, and...
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Episode 18: Aloha Shirts & Bermuda Shorts
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns: Visit today and sew something extraordinary. We're gearing up for summer--literally--with an episode on aloha shirts and Bermuda shorts! Aloha wear was invented in Hawaii in the 1920s and 30s, but it really took off during WWII, when millions of military personnel passed through the island--and picked up souvenirs to send home. We share the history of aloha shirts from their birth in Hawaii to their boom on the mainland, and trace the evolution of two well-known aloha wear designers, Malihini Sportswear and Alfred Shaheen. We talk about the...
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Episode 17: Indonesian Batik
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns: Visit today and sew something extraordinary. Batik is a beautiful resist-dye tradition that has a strong association with Indonesia. In this episode, we share the history of batik and some of the history of Indonesia. The fourth most populous country in the world, made up of 17,000 (yes, you read that right) islands, Indonesia has a thousands-year-old tradition of batik. There are even depictions of batik carved into the stone monuments at Borobudur, one of Indonesia's most famous Buddhist monuments (and a UNESCO World Heritage Site). In this...
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Episode 16: Macrame & Knotting
Handmade History
Sponsored by Folkwear Patterns: Visit today and sew something extraordinary. If you ever made macrame anklets out of hemp or friendship bracelets out of embroidery floss, you joined in on a tradition of macrame that is 3000 years old! Macrame fringe appears on stone carvings from the Assyrian civilization--a kingdom of Mesopotamia--that date to the 1000s BCE. The tradition has continued in the Mediterranean up through the present day, and it spread (perhaps via the Moors of Northern Africa) to Spain and Europe, as well as the Americas. In the US, macrame became popular in the Victorian era as...
info_outlineWe're doing a giveaway!
To celebrate our collaboration kit & pattern with Melissa Galbraith of MCreativeJ, we are giving away one of Melissa’s books, DIY Embroidered Shoes.
If you would like to enter the giveaway, visit Handmade History Podcast on Instagram. You’ll see the giveaway post pinned right at the top and you can comment and enter there.
If you’re not on Instagram, no worries! Just send us an email with your name and let us know that you’d like to enter the giveaway. You can email us at handmadehistoryhosts@gmail.com. This giveaway closes on December 1, 2025.
This week, we are talking about blackwork, a type of counted embroidery that typically uses a special stitch called the Holbein stitch. Tradition holds that Queen Katherine of Aragon brought blackwork to England from Spain when she married Henry VIII, and that the Holbein stitch was named after Tudor court painter Hans Holbein the younger.
But blackwork was around for hundreds of years before the Tudors reigned.
Mamluk embroidery is a type of embroidery that looks just like blackwork--and it originated in Egypt in the 1200s. We explore the fascinating history of how this group of enslaved Turks and Central Asians rose to power, and how they made Egypt the center of the Arab world.
We go back even further in time to explore an Indian tradition, kasuti embroidery, which has all of the characteristics of modern blackwork. And it's still going strong today!
Join us on a journey around the world and across time as we explore the origins of blackwork!
Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/w3mmva9k
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