Alexandra Makin is a professional embroiderer and Third Century Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. Originally trained at the Royal School of Needlework, Alex went on to gain her PhD, ‘Embroidery and its context in the British Isles and Ireland during the early medieval period (450-1100)’, from Manchester University.
She worked as a post-doctoral research associate on the ‘Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard’ project, run by Glasgow University and National Museums Scotland.
Alex is also a qualified teacher, specialising in embroidery. She has published widely including journal articles, newspaper and history magazine pieces, a monograph, ‘The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery’, and a co-edited volume ‘Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic: Analysis, Interpretation, Re-creation’. Alex is a member of the Bayeux Tapestry Scientific Committee for Research and the consultant for embroidery at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux.
She has also contributed to the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition catalogue. Alex been interviewed on TV and radio about the Bayeux Tapestry. She also runs her YouTube channel ‘Early Medieval Embroidery’, which she uses to discuss her work, especially her experimental projects, with wider audiences.
To learn more about Alex's work, visit her website and online shop:
early-medieval-embroidery.square.site/
You can also follow her YouTube channel, Early Medieval Embroidery:
youtube.com/@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery
Below you will find the first in a series of videos in which Alex explores the Bayeux Tapestry, sharing her expertise as a researcher, embroiderer, and member of the Bayeux Tapestry Scientific Committee for Research.