The Sword – Unique Lace Artwork

Maggie Hensel‑Brown’s Lace Series comprises three needle lace works that distill a historic depiction of Judith beheading Holofernes into intimate vignettes. In the story drawn from the apocryphal Book of Judith, a widow saves her town by entering the tent of the besieging general Holofernes and beheading him with his own sword. Each piece draws out a single motif from the original 17th‑century lace in the Powerhouse Collection – a hand reaching toward a sword, a servant’s bag and an enigmatic pot – rendered as delicate, readable imagery. Worked in super fine silk thread over a hand‑drawn pattern, the lace is built stitch by stitch and released by cutting away darker scaffold threads so it can be peeled off in one freestanding form, with cascading glass bead tassels and deep red drips adding a lush, tactile richness. Commissioned exclusively by Powerhouse Made™, these small but intensely detailed works bring centuries of lace history and stories of powerful women into the intimacy of the home. 

On first seeing the original panel in the Powerhouse Collection in 2015, Hensel‑Brown learned that lace could carry stories as powerful as any painting or text, a discovery that has shaped her practice ever since. 

“I hope that people see that storytelling is important, and that we should look at power in all kinds of different interesting ways.” – Maggie Hensel-Brown