Heritage Reimagined: Contemporary Tassel Making with Elizabeth Ashdown – Lingfield, Surrey, April 2027

I’m delighted to be teaching Heritage Reimagined: Contemporary Tassel Making in Lingfield, Surrey, from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th April 2027. Over three days you will make one showstopper tassel entirely by hand. The design is a contemporary tassel inspired by the opulence of Marie Antoinette’s interiors, and you will take it home to treasure. Places are limited to 12.

Jewellery for the home

I often describe passementerie as jewellery for the home. For centuries, silk cords, braids, fringes and tassels have adorned the most beautiful rooms as small-scale works of art. Of all these treasures, the tassel is the most spectacular: a rich, intricate jewel that personalises and elevates an interior.

A Marie Antoinette-inspired tassel

Marie Antoinette’s rooms at Versailles were famous for their lavish silk trimmings, and this tassel reimagines that exuberance in joyful, contemporary colour.

An endangered heritage craft

Passementerie is on the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts. I am one of only three hand passementerie designers and makers still working in the UK. I have spent my career practising and teaching this craft, including at the Royal School of Needlework and Au Ver à Soie in Paris. In this class you will learn the traditional techniques of tassel making, woven into a design that is joyful and contemporary.

What you will make

You will make a large tassel with:

  • a hand-snailed wooden mould

  • a ruff

  • wrapped wire leaves ‘Cartisan’

  • Strings of mini tassels

Close-up view of a handmade green, pink and beige tassel made by a student during Elizabeth Ashdown's tassel making workshop

Every element is made by hand during the workshop using traditional French passementerie techniques. You choose your own colour palette, so each tassel is unique. Most of the photographs on this page show tassels made by students on a previous class.

Handmade tassel being created using cartisan leaves in bright blue and pink, strings of mini tassel in shades of hot pink and orange and a linen tassel skirt being assembled.

Workshop at a glance

  • Class: Heritage Reimagined: Contemporary Tassel Making with Elizabeth Ashdown

  • Dates: Friday 9th – Sunday 11th April 2027 (three-day tassel making masterclass)

  • Times: 10am – 4pm each day

  • Venue: Lingfield & Dormansland Community Centre, High Street, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6AB

  • Group size: Limited to 12 guests

  • Level: Beginners to tassel making are very welcome, as are those with some experience of the craft

  • Price: £485, including all materials

  • Tutor: Elizabeth Ashdown

Book your place on Heritage Reimagined: Contemporary Tassel Making

  • No. Beginners are very welcome, and I will guide you through every technique step by step. If you have made tassels before, you will still learn new skills and can take the design further.

  • The £485 fee includes three days of tuition and all the materials you need to complete your tassel, including the wooden mould and threads. Delicious homemade cake, tea and coffee is also included.

  • Lingfield has its own railway station, with trains from London and East Croydon. The Community Centre is on the High Street and has a free car park. Lingfield is easily accessible from the M25, M23 and A22.

  • Yes, the class is designed so you leave with a finished tassel. Most students finish, and I’ll show you how to complete any final details at home.

Elizabeth Ashdown