Metal thread couching is the technique of laying down metal threads and using a finer thread to secure them; this entry demonstrates how to turn the couching thread at the end of a line.

The origins of metal thread couching are hard to ascertain as early literary references are frequently unclear whether the metal threads are being woven or couched: Exodus 39:3 references making gold threads but their use is not described.  We can, however, be certain that towards the end of the first millennium, metal thread couching was being skilfully employed in both the UK and China.  The Maaseik Embroideries (found in Belgium, but credited with being made in England towards the end of the 8th century/beginning of the 9th) are considered a pre-cursor to Opus Anglicanum.  Analysis of the passing thread indicates that the core is made of cattle tail hair wrapped with gold foil (approximately 0.5mm wide) mostly made of pure gold with an occasional trace of silver.  From a century later, artefacts from St Cuthbert’s tomb and Chinese Tang embroideries both also feature couched metal threads, the latter referred to as ‘flat gold’.

Underside couching subsequently took precedence in England for quite some time but by the 1430s the use of metal thread couching had regained popularity.  Across the world, it has been used for religious, military, ceremonial and other garments; for military dress this has been credited to European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries but countries including Turkey, Iran, Yemen, China and Sumatra have long traditions of using metal thread couching for a range of garments.