Heloise by Tanya Bentham

She stands within a gilded quatrefoil, a bluebird perched carefully on her fingers, her gaze calm and patient.

She is waiting with a quiet, expectant pose that carries a weight that goes far beyond a decorative figure on red velvet, such is the remarkable weight of her story.

If you are not familiar with the epic true love story of Heloise and Abelard, you are in for one of history's most remarkable love stories.

And it all starts today with the incredible piece Heloise by Tanya Bentham from Inspirations magazine issue #130 - a portrait of a woman quite unlike anything we have published before.

First, we must welcome the incredibly talented and highly experienced designer Tanya Bentham to the pages of Inspirations magazine for the first time. After admiring her work for so many years, we're thrilled to have her join us.

Also, for the very first time, with Heloise we're featuring the technique of Opus Anglicanum, the ancient English embroidery tradition that dominated the medieval world from the 12th to mid-14th centuries, so prized across Europe that popes and kings competed to own it.

Opus Anglicanum is characterised by two stitches, split stitch and underside couching, worked here in filament silk and gold thread, with satin stitch for finer detail work.

One of the key distinguishing features of Opus Anglicanum is the finish, which Tanya herself explains:

‘Light reflecting off silk is just as important in the finished piece as light reflecting off gold, but it is often forgotten in modern discussions of this technique because the silk on original pieces has degraded or worn away completely over the centuries. The whole point of the carefully contoured stitching in Opus Anglicanum is to reflect light. An individual stitch should be difficult to discern using this technique and it's all about the flow of stitch.

If there is anyone suitably qualified and experienced to be introducing and teaching us about this technique, it would have to be Tanya.

As a UK-based medieval embroidery specialist, who has spent most of her adult life studying, teaching and writing about the technique, Tanya brings both deep scholarship and countless hours of stitching know-how to all she does.

Having authored three books on the subject, Tanya's instructions are as engaging throughout as they are precise, equal parts technical masterclass and an entertaining read.

The finished piece measures just 12.5cm (5") square, but there is nothing small about its presence. And it is, importantly, only half the story — Heloise's partner Abelard arrives in Inspirations magazine issue #131 and we can't wait to tell you the rest of their shocking love story then.

In the meantime, as you may have already noticed, there is a lot of metal thread used in this project, which is just part of what makes it so spectacular.

If you're finding it difficult to source metal threads, may we suggest the Heloise Ready-to-Stitch kit as a solution as it includes the 20m (21yd 32") of white gold and 1m (1yd 4") of dark gold metal threads and the 13 different DeVere Yarns silks used, along with everything else you need to re-create the stunning Heloise.

Click below for more information about this project including links for the kits and instructions.