About Sarah Rakestraw and Golden Hinde
Sarah Rakestraw is the owner of Golden Hinde and the Golden Hinde Embroidery Academy. Her love of gold work and many other embroidery techniques can be seen in each piece of work crafted by her and her enthusiasm shines through when talking about or teaching embroidery techniques.
“My love of gold work started whilst watching my mum for many years, designing clothes and making costumes for school plays. She worked on a banner for my school for two years, all worked in goldwork this banner is paraded with my old school St Thomas’s every walking day displaying its beauty as it ripples in the sunshine to this day”.
At the age of 14, Sarah studied Textiles GCSE, at which she achieved the highest grade (A). Sarah also attained an Art “A” level and over the years has developed her interest in embroidery and sewing by making and designing her own clothes and patterns.
Sarah also attended University and achieved a degree in business and financial management and as a result is also a Chartered Accountant.
Sarah is married to Stephen and has two children John and William.
Sarah is Golden Hinde’s Resident Tutor, she has been teaching embroidery for over 25 years and is an expert in the field of Goldwork, Sarah has taught in many different settings to different skill levels, from teaching small taster classes at the likes of the knitting and stitch show, and day classes to full week long retreats.
Sarah is very knowledgeable in many embroidery techniques such as Whitework, Silk shading, Blackwork and needle lace to name a few. She quite often incorporates other type of embroideries with Goldwork, as they sit in harmony together. Goldwork always remains her favourite embroidery technique and she loves to share these skills with others .
Golden Hinde also hold fortnightly regular in-person classes taught by Sarah, lots of stunning work is produced from simple pieces to large complicated designs. Many of the designs are created by Sarah, based on what the embroiderer wants to make, this can be taken from a picture as inspiration or an idea from scratch, but each piece is completely unique. You can see many of the creations produced in our classes on Golden Hinde’s website and social media pages.
In addition, Sarah also hosts special one off classes for others for Embroidery groups such as Embroiderers guilds, and also has held a private masterclass on passing thread for Phillipa Turnbull and her team at the crewelwork company.
Sarah has also taught for Lady Anne’s Needlework where she has taught the goldwork notebook, which involved samples of lots of threads and wires for the owner to keep notes and samples to keep for reference in the future. In 2023 she taught Lady Margaret’s Pin Cushion, which was based on the effigy of Lady Margaret – Lady Anne’s mother – in the local church in Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria. Both designs were designed from scratch by Sarah and were all taught online. If you are interested in these designs Sarah will be teaching them in person on the Golden Hinde retreats over the nest few years, with The Goldwork notebook in 2025 you can find more information regarding this on the Golden Hinde website.
Having developed her expertise over so many years, Sarah was delighted to launch the Golden Hinde Academy in December 2023, to make embroidery available to everyone.
Pictured Left to Right: Goldwork Notebook; The Lady Margaret pincushion
