author
Ann Macbeth
A leading figure in the Glasgow Movement, this British embroiderer, designer, teacher, and author helped turn embroidery into something modern, expressive, and socially engaged. Her books and teaching brought decorative craft into everyday life while also linking it to the fight for women's rights.
1 Audiobook
The Playwork Book
by Ann Macbeth
About the author
Born in Bolton, England, in 1875, Ann Macbeth became one of the most distinctive creative voices associated with the Glasgow Movement. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art and later taught there for many years, building a reputation not only as an embroiderer and designer but also as a gifted teacher and writer.
Her work helped reshape embroidery as an art form, moving it beyond convention and toward bold design, practical making, and wider public appeal. She wrote books including Educational Needlecraft and, with May Spence, School and Fireside Crafts, sharing ideas that connected handcraft, design, and education.
Macbeth was also active in the women's suffrage movement, designing banners for campaign groups and showing how textile art could carry political meaning as well as beauty. She died in 1948, but she remains an important figure in British decorative arts and in the history of craft as both creative practice and public statement.