Embroi­dery and Sacred Text intro­duces nine­teen new designs in Juda­ic and Bib­li­cal embroi­dery in stun­ning pho­tographs of Rachel Braun’s orig­i­nal and col­or­ful needle­work. The author has embell­ished sacred texts from litur­gy piyyut (prayer­ful poet­ry) and Bible in cre­at­ing her designs in embroi­dery can­vas­es stitched in black­work embroi­dery tech­nique. Eru­dite and insight­ful com­men­tary accom­pa­ny­ing each piece adds a spir­i­tu­al dimen­sion for appre­ci­at­ing the designs and for under­stand­ing the asso­ci­a­tions of sacred text and art. An intro­duc­to­ry essay con­sid­ers the role of artis­tic expres­sion in the elu­ci­da­tion of Bib­li­cal and litur­gi­cal texts. In addi­tion Rachel shares forty embroi­dery motifs for fel­low nee­dle artists to incor­po­rate in their own projects along with ten new embroi­dery alpha­bets for Hebrew and Eng­lish let­ter­ing. A chap­ter explain­ing the math­e­mat­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions in embroi­dery design pro­vides clear acces­si­ble expla­na­tions of how geo­met­ric and alge­bra­ic fac­tors under­lie the shape of the embroi­dery pat­terns. This book will speak to your artis­tic spir­i­tu­al and, yes, math­e­mat­i­cal personalities.