Goldwork and Tambour Beehive Course

Location: This course is delivered via Zoom & WhatsApp. Please click here for guides to using Zoom & WhatsApp

Duration: 6 Week Embroidery Course (1 x 2.5 hour session per week for 6 consecutive weeks) 

This course explores haute couture embroidery through a honeycomb and bee design, combining goldwork and tambour beading to create a layered, textured piece. You’ll learn how couture techniques work in practice and gain hands-on experience with the kind of detailed embellishment used in high-end fashion embroidery.

We start with tambour, mastering the chain stitch to build the honeycomb base. Once the foundation is in place, you’ll layer sequins, crystals, beads and metallic threads to create depth, texture and subtle sparkle. The honeycomb provides structure while leaving space for creativity, allowing you to experiment with pattern and embellishment placement.

The final stage of the design introduces hand-embroidered bees, adding delicate, three-dimensional details that bring the piece to life. You’ll learn how to combine structural techniques with decorative finishing touches to achieve a cohesive, polished result.

This course is perfect for anyone looking to develop a strong understanding of couture embroidery. By the end, you’ll have created a richly textured, layered design and gained the confidence to adapt these techniques to your own projects. You’ll also develop a deeper awareness of how threads, textures and embellishments interact, giving you a solid foundation for experimenting with intricate, high-fashion embroidery in your future work.

• Check your shipping address and email are correct before ordering.
• Please read all of the course description information above and the technical and shipping information below before booking your course.
• All courses are non refundable, if you cannot attend please let us know as soon as possible and we will try to move you to another course.

• If you have any questions please check our FAQ's page here.

This course is inspired by the SS13 Alexander McQueen Beekeeper collection designed by Sarah Burton. The collection looks to nature, focusing on bees and honeycombs as symbols of structure, detail and beauty. Honeycomb patterns appear across the garments, often combined with metallic threads, beads and embroidery to create texture and movement.

In this course you will translate those ideas into embroidery. You will work the geometric honeycomb first to give structure, then add the bees on top in hand embroidery for detailed highlights. The aim is to understand how pattern repetition texture and layering are used in couture and how those principles can be applied to your own work.

You will leave with a finished piece and a clear understanding of how tambour goldwork and beading can be combined. The result will be a piece inspired by McQueen but shaped entirely by your own choices.

Embroidery has always been at the heart of haute couture, adding texture, detail and a sense of luxury to fashion. Goldwork, in particular, has a long history of being associated with opulence. It started out in royal and religious garments, where gold threads, bullion and spangles were used to create raised patterns that showed status and wealth. Over time, these techniques made their way into fashion, with couture houses across Europe adapting them to bring the same richness and precision to their designs.

By the 20th century, goldwork had become a signature part of luxury fashion. Techniques evolved to include tambour beading, sequins, metallic threads and raised stitches, adding depth, movement and structure to garments. The result was embroidery that wasn’t just decoration — it became sculptural, transforming clothes into wearable pieces of art.

In modern fashion, goldwork continues to inspire designers. Alexander McQueen’s SS13 Beekeeper collection by Sarah Burton is a perfect example, with honeycomb patterns and tiny embroidered bees layered with metallic threads, sequins and beads. The collection shows how couture embroidery combines technical skill, artistry and imagination, taking inspiration from both history and nature.

Learning goldwork and couture embroidery today lets you explore these same techniques yourself. You can experiment with layering, texture and embellishment, discovering how threads, beads and metallics work together to create dimension.

• You will begin by learning how to transfer your design onto fabric using a special transfer method, including techniques for working on dark fabric grounds in couture embroidery.

• Next, you’ll focus on mastering the fundamentals of tambour embroidery. You’ll start by learning the mechanics of using a tambour hook safely, familiarising yourself with all its parts and practising how to bring the hook in and out of the fabric without snagging the fibres.

• From there, you’ll move on to creating the chain stitch (also called the Beauvais stitch), a decorative stitch used throughout couture fashion embroidery and the foundation for all tambour beading. You’ll first work from the top of the fabric to understand the stitch, then flip the fabric over to work from the back.

• Most tambour (Lunéville) embroidery is worked from the back using the French method, and this is the approach we’ll focus on in this stage of the course. You’ll start by attaching seed beads from the back and then progress to working with bugle beads and sequins.

• You will also explore Aari embroidery, a technique originating in India that focuses on bead and sequin appliqué from the top of the fabric.

• The course also covers a range of Goldwork and metal thread techniques. You’ll begin by learning how to accurately appliqué cloth of gold — a fabric with metals woven into the warp and weft — and then explore applying gold threads, including passing thread, pearl purl and bullions. You’ll discover the characteristics of each material and learn how to use them effectively to create sparkle and dimension.

• Finally, you will complete your piece by adding your bees to the honeycomb using crystal appliqué, felt padding and cutwork, giving you a holistic understanding of both metal thread embroidery and tambour embroidery.

• All course materials will be sent directly to you. You will need a 10-inch seat frame, or an equivalent embroidery or slate frame, to use during the class. You will also need to provide your own basic embroidery equipment, such as scissors, needle threaders and a daylight lamp, according to your individual needs. 

• When you book the course, we will send you our Embroidery Essentials document, which outlines all the tools and equipment you might want to have ready to get the most out of your learning experience.

• A recording of each course session will be sent to you within one week of the session. You will then be able to keep and refer to this recording indefinitely.