A quick reminder: if you'd like to join us for the Wild Pansy Stumpwork Stitch Along with MCreativeJ in March, please pre-order your kit or pattern today! You'll get everything you need (pattern, supplies, and a great Handmade History article) to make a beautiful hand-embroidered 3-D pansy & learn to do stumpwork! Get 15% off the kit or PDF pattern before 12/31/25. Want to share the Stitch Along as a gift? Just put a note in your order and we will send a cute e-card to your giftee to let them know they are in, and their kit/pattern is on the way! Visit https://www.patreon.com/posts/142281475 for more details.

The art and craft of papercutting is as old as paper-- and in this episode, we cover both! Listen in to learn about the history of paper and paper-like materials such as papyrus and tapa. Then, follow us around the globe as we explore traditions of papercutting in several countries. We cover Chinese papercutting, Mexican papel picado, Indonesian shadow puppets, the tradition of Jewish papercutting, and scherenschnitte in Switzerland and the US--among others! We also talk about the variety of tools and supplies used by papercutters in different traditions, and the wide range of motifs that papercutters create. Finally, we profile two papercut artists from the early 1800s, Adele Schopenhauer and Martha Ann Honeywell. This is by no means a comprehensive survey of papercutting--but it's a great start!

We will take a break for the holidays and be back in January with more Handmade History. Happy holidays, everyone!

Shownotes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/4jf5xncd

Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at handmadehistoryhosts@gmail.com.

Sign up for our free posts on our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast.

Visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

Listen in your favorite player, or in your browser at https://handmadehistorypodcast.com/#listen

Quick note: If you'd like to join us for the Wild Pansy Stumpwork Stitch Along, grab your kit or pattern here! Pre-order before December 31 and get 15% off!

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 Sculpey.com.

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 easy way to get all the colors you need to get started.

If you are an experienced polymer clay maker, then you know the variety of products Sculpey has to offer, from Liquid Sculpey to Sculpey Souffle, to all the tools you need to make beads, jewelry, sculptures, frames, dishes, and more.

Visit Sculpey.com use code HANDMADE25 for 25% off your entire order.

Sculpey – Where creativity takes shape.

Thank you, Sculpey!

If you were a child of the nineties (like one of us was!), you probably came across polymer clay. This brightly colored clay that bakes in the oven can be made into beads, miniatures, and so much more. In this episode, we share the story of the invention of polymer clay from an oil-production by-product (in Germany) and a failed attempt to make a material for electrical transformers (in the US). We tell the story of Sophie Rehbinder-Kruse, who eventually made the first successful polymer clay in the 1940s called FIMOIK. We also tell the story of how Sculpey started in the US in the 60s with white clay and demonstrations at art shops and craft fairs.

We share some of the wide range of techniques that people use to create with polymer clay, from caning to conditioning with a pasta machine (thank you, Marie Segal!). And we finish by profiling two very different but very cool polymer clay artists, Ford/Forlano and Yuka Morii. Join us and relive your time at the kitchen table making beads, buttons, and miniature versions of food for your dolls!

Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/373kwc5u

Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at handmadehistoryhosts@gmail.com.

Sign up for our free posts on our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast.

Visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

We'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

Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at handmadehistoryhosts@gmail.com.

Sign up for our free posts on our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast.

Visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.