We have experienced such a transition over the last seven months and delighted to be able to offer many of our courses online, ensuring our teaching is accessible to students wherever they are, in the safety of their own home.  It is incredible to think that on just one Saturday in November, we had three Live Online Day Classes, an Online Information Day and started to teach our Certificate & Diploma Online for the USA time zone.

We are now regularly running Online Sessions for the Certificate & Diploma in Technical Hand Embroidery (C&D) in the following time zones;

• Tuesday morning to Australia
• Tuesday all day to the UK
• Wednesday morning to Australia
• Thursday all day to the UK
• Saturday all day to the USA
• We are also running a three week USA Intensive Course on various days

Although these sessions are designated to time zones, they are not exclusive to these areas.  Indeed, we are finding that students are joining sessions that better suit their work or home timetable, even if it means getting up early or working late into the evening.  To give you a few examples; we have C&D students from New Zealand and the UK joining one of the Australia Classes; there are USA Students in our UK classes as well as UK students joining the USA sessions! This means that one class can bring a mix of countries together, giving the opportunity for students to meet like-minded people from around the world, forming new friendships.

The big question we are asked regularly is:
‘When will we be able to teach the Certificate & Diploma Jacobean Crewelwork module online?’

We are very excited to announce that we will be ready to deliver this module in the new year and will be delivering to several time zones. Once the dates have been set, we will go out to all those who have:- booked to attend the 2020 Summer Intensive; registered as a new student or expressed an interest in online learning.  To register your interest, contact: [email protected]

If you are already a C&D Student, you can book your next class via Bookeo here.

Image featured shows: RSN Tutor Becky Quine teaching two of her students from the first Online C&D to the USA, with C&D Students Mallory Porch and Denise Kristof.

During the initial Lockdown, our Embroidery Studio received a huge number of enquiries regarding family samplers which are always so special to have.  One such enquiry had us scratching our heads.

This sampler was a family piece and had been handed down through the family to the current owner, our customer. The sampler was stitched by Sally Trezise White, the sister of the customer’s Great Grandfather, W.T.White. Sally died at the age of 11 from a fever, the sampler was worked when she was 8. The family lived at Bojewyan, Cape Cornwall, where her father Henry White was a village blacksmith. W.T.White prospered and moved his family to Redruth where he became the manager of various tin mines. The sampler, as you will see from the images, shows a set of gates, which is a slightly more unusual motif to have on a sampler.  We thought perhaps this represented the gates of the tin mines. It just shows how blinkered you can become when looking at pieces, as it took a colleague’s husband to point out when he heard the story, that as the poem reads;

Dying Christian to
His Soul vital spark
Of heavenly flame quit
Oh quit this mortal

The gates featured were in fact the ‘pearly gates to heaven’.

The sampler, dated 1843, was in a good condition with only a tiny hole, most likely a moth’s meal! So our expert team lightly hand cleaned the sampler using a low suction vacuum to remove any surface dust, debris and insect residue. We supported the piece onto an appropriate linen, then surface couched, securing it to the linen. The sampler was then mounted onto acid free card and put back into the original frame. We always recommend that if a customer has the history behind the sampler, that this is either, added inside the frame of the sampler, or on the outside of the backing board so that it stays with the piece.

The sampler will be hanging up in our customer’s home.  In addition, our customer wanted a copy in her house in Cornwall.  We had a photograph taken which was digitally reproduced to the same size.  Now both pieces are hanging in pride of place and will keep the story alive of this clever little girl for future generations.

If you have any restoration or conservation projects, please contact: [email protected]

Nina Brabbins, RSN Degree Graduate 2018

Nina Brabbins graduated from the RSN Degree, BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery, in 2018, specialising in Textile Art. In her second and third year, she started to explore stitch in a more conceptual/broader term, combing it with experimental basket weaving. Her final collection of work was entitled ‘Sea Change’ which was the springboard for the direction her work has taken since graduation.

“My main focus has been to explore the connections between the human and natural worlds, or lack of connection. Looking at how this culminates in our disregard for the planet, resulting in the devastating plastic waste issues we are now faced with. This has led me to predominantly use reclaimed sea plastic/ghost nets collected from beaches in Wales, using stitch techniques such as needlelace combined with basketry techniques such as coil basketry, moving away from the traditional hand embroidery techniques I learnt at the RSN, but allowing them to influence new approaches.”

After Graduating, Nina took a short break from embroidery, although she was involved in Craftspace’s annual ‘In:Site Festival in 2018’ in the centre of Birmingham, as a Graduate Artist.  View more on YouTube . 

To raise awareness of environmental issues, Nina encouraged the public to contribute to an installation featuring her own large scale hand embroidered sculptures made from plastic waste collected from the city and the sea.

Nina continues; “After these few months off, I then took part in the Stroud Open Studio’s Festival in May 2019, exhibiting my work at the beautiful location of Woodchester Mansion.  However, I then became quite ill and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which put my plans I had to start teaching workshops on hold for a few months. Then, in September 2019, I started teaching Coil Basketry workshops in Bristol, Stroud and Cirencester. This really got me back into my love of making, seeing the joy it can bring when shared with other people, but unfortunately Covid has put a stop to this for now.

“I currently have jewellery and baskets for sale which are made from sea plastic waste. They are available on the ‘We Make Bristol’ Online Shop, at ‘Studio 3’ Artists Gallery in Clevedon, at the Cove’s Christmas Market at the Tobacco Factory Bristol in December, and soon to be stocked at a new venture in Stroud.

“A lot of my jewellery incorporates old T-shirt material (as well as sea plastic) given to me by Stellen Jewellery studio, who recently featured me in their new blog – read here. 

“In the future, I would love to collaborate with other sustainable makers and crafters, and explore community arts and making, to bring creativity to everyone and help spread the message of our need to take action against climate change.”

We wish Nina every success in her dream to “keep making and properly start selling and showing my work.”

You can follow Nina through her Instagram page.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Degree in Hand Embroidery, reserve your place in our next Online Degree Open Day at 6pm on Thursday 10 December. 

Following her graduation from the RSN Degree in 2017, Alice Brady moved back to her home in Dublin, Ireland. While working part-time, Alice began work on a series of pieces inspired by Irish Wildflowers. She was especially interested in their links to Irish Folklore. Each flower symbolises something different within the folklore tradition and this is expressed in her work through ancient Ogham writing. Alice went on to include Ogham writing in other works, particularly in commissioned pieces. This love of Irish Folklore, Language, Landscape and History is still quite prominent in Alice’s work. As of late though, it has become much more abstract, with a focus on texture created through stitch. Constantly inspired by her surroundings, Alice is hoping to bring some of this abstract, textural work into a new series with a more urban subject.

Alice says: “Most recently I collaborated with another 2017 RSN Alumna, Bethany Duffy, to create works inspired by Ancient Goddesses. As this happened over lockdown, the work was shared through social media. We each created a design, sent it to each other, and stitched it in our own way. There was no discussion or guidance as we wanted to truly compare our styles, materials and techniques. It’s so interesting to see how differently two artists can interpret the same piece and we wanted to encourage others to be creative with it too”.

You can learn more about this work on Alice’s website, or on Alice and Bethany’s social media pages.

Alice loves to share her knowledge and love of embroidery, and began teaching classes and workshops around Dublin quite soon after graduation. Most of these take place in The LAB Gallery, Dublin  but COVID restrictions have presented new challenges in this field, and teaching has gradually moved online. Over lockdown, there was a surge in orders of kits and supplies as many people began to look for new hobbies to do at home. Embroidery has always been a great tool for improving mental health, but is particularly helpful in these difficult times. With this increased demand, Alice decided to launch an Embroidery Subscription service.

“Members receive access to exclusive content, and embroidery supplies or kits shipped to their door each month to help keep the creative juices flowing. There are also a number of free resources on my website including beginner tutorials and a Random Stitch Generator.  I am currently busy preparing for Christmas which is set to look very different this year without the usual Craft Markets to attend. While exploring the possibility of virtual markets, I am taking orders for personalised pieces. From embroidered decorations to portraits of houses – no job is too big or too small – and I am also hoping to launch a new range of products including an Embroiderer’s Gift Box in time for the holiday season.”

You can learn more about Alice and her work at www.bealice.ie or on Instagram @be_alice_

If you are interested in finding out more about the Degree in Hand Embroidery, reserve your place in our next Online Degree Open Day at 6pm on Thursday 10 December. 

We have launched our Christmas themed classes and this year they are all available to join Online so you can create some magical embroidery in time for Christmas.  We have classes taking place at different times and for different loves including Introduction to Embroidery, Appliqué, Blackwork and Raised Embroidery.  All times below are UK times.

Festive Vintage Baubles :  Sat 14 November & Sun 15 November, 10am–4pm

‘The Holly & The Ivy’ :  Sun 15 & Sun 22 November, 9.30am–11.30am

Introduction to Embroidery Five Gold Rings :  Weekly, Sat 21 November – Sat 5 December, 9.30am–1pm

Gingerbread Holly Wreath :  Sunday 22 November, 10am–4pm

Raised Embroidery ‘Christmas Candy Brooch/Bauble’ :  Weekly, Mon 23 November – Monday 14 December, 7–9pm

The Lost Dress of Elizabeth I, ‘Mistletoe’ :  Weekly, Wed 25 November – Wed 9 December, 6.30-8.30pm

Introduction to Blackwork: Christmas Robin with Mistletoe :  Weekly, Fri 27 November – Fri 4 December, 2-4.30pm

View and Book Christmas Classes

View all our Online Classes coming up

For any queries, please contact: [email protected]

Christmas is coming and the perfect gift can be found at the RSN Online Shop. We have something to suit everyone, whether you love to stitch or prefer to admire it!  We can even gift wrap your purchase and send it directly to the lucky recipient – just let us know when you order

Here are our top picks:

• Embrace Christmas with a seasonal needlework kit – we have a range of designs for all tastes and abilities, from RSN Embroiderer Masako Newton’s Silk Shading Robin to RSN Tutor’s Lizzy Pye’s Stumpwork Holly

• Catch up on your reading – we offer a carefully curated range of books including some wonderful collector’s publications that are rare and out of print.  Some of these collector’s items have been kindly donated to us – this means that the sale helps to support us.

• Specialist embroidery threads including beautiful fine Crewel wool by Renaissance Dyeing and specialist Japanese Metal Thread

• If you are not sure what to buy the stitch lover you know, then an RSN Christmas Gift Voucher could be the perfect option as it can be used against any RSN purchases and classes.

View our Christmas Shop

To help your planning and to avoid any postal delays, here is a guide for last orders:

Australia, NZ and South America – Wednesday 25 November
USA and Rest of World – Wednesday 2 December
Europe – Monday 7 December
UK – Wednesday 16 December

These are guidelines and we will endeavour to get everything out as soon as we can. All overseas orders will be sent using a tracked and signed for service, UK orders have a bit more flexibility.

Happy shopping!

Facebook New Algorithm & News Feed Preferences

We have a lively feed on both our Facebook and Instagram accounts but we recently learnt that Facebook has changed its algorithm which does not guarantee that all of our Followers will see the RSN daily posts as often as they did in the past.  There is, however, a way around managing your News Feed preferences, guaranteeing receipt of our posts at the top of your Facebook feed.  Please do the following:

• To view your News Feed preferences, click the downward facing arrow on the top right hand side of your Facebook screen.

• Select Settings and Privacy.

• Click on News Feed Preferences.

• You then click on Manage Favourites to select people and Pages that you want to prioritise which means that their posts will be shown higher in your News Feed.

We hope that you have found this useful and look forward to your engaging more with us on our social platforms!

The RSN has always entertained visitors and some of them have come on informal visits, such was the visit of the Duchess of Cambridge in 2012 but this is not a new phenomenon. Queen Victoria did it too. The Kilburn Times of 24 September 1880 records:

‘Some time ago the Queen paid an informal visit to the {Royal School of Art Needlework] early one morning, before the fashionable world expected to meet so august a personage looking over a school of embroidery.’  It goes on to say that she looked into the work rooms, and even in to the workboxes of the stitchers and the cupboards where the bolts of cloth were kept.

The writer of the Ladies Column then goes on ‘But most of all the Royal eyes were charmed with the rows of drawers full of skeins of delicate silks and crewels, specially dyed for the use of the school.’

The writer concludes with an interesting musical analogy. ‘Tones of each colour no longer satisfy critical taste: semi-tones and demi-tones are essential. The tuning fork has not more vibrations to produce a single keynote than has every colour its degrees of depth and richness.’

So we think Queen Victoria would have liked the Wall of Wool in our Embroidery Studio (photo featured).  Although the thing most amusing, was that in a subsequent newspaper column from 1882, possibly the same writer comments on the fact that when Queen Victoria arrived, the workers had hurriedly shoved all detritus into workbaskets and cupboards so they could appear clean and tidy.  When Her Majesty subsequently asked to look inside, said workbaskets and cupboards, the writer considered The Queen got more than she bargained for!

Following the success of our Instagram LIVE with Daniel Lismore and requests for more, we are delighted to announce our second Instagram LIVE on Thursday 8 October at 1pm with Jamie Chalmers, aka Mr X Stitch. Jamie took up cross stitching 15 years ago and he’s never looked back, referring to himself as a ‘Manbroiderer’!

Since establishing the Mr X Stitch website in 2008, Jamie has been showcasing new talent in the world of textiles and stitch and has curated a number of stitch-based exhibitions in the UK and Ireland. Jamie is an accomplished and internationally exhibited artist in his own right, the curator of PUSH Stitchery and the author of the Mr X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch. He is the founder of ‘Stitch’, the game-changing Cross Stitch design magazine which launched in summer 2017.

Jamie is an active leader in the online stitch community, what he has dubbed ‘the new embroidery movement’, and is active on various social networking platforms. He loves introducing new people to the benefits of embroidery from a creative and wellbeing standpoint and is proud to be an ambassador for this ubiquitous craft.

Angie Wyman, Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery Degree, will be in conversation with Jamie, discussing his passion for embroidery and textiles, and his support for the RSN Embroider a Selfie, a project for schools to encourage children to step away from their phones and express themselves through stitch instead! To ‘meet’ Jamie before our LIVE, head over to his TEDx Talk where you will hear him talk about how “your life can be enriched by something as simple as a needle and thread.”

Follow us on Instagram @royalneedlework

Upon graduation from the RSN Degree BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery in 2019, Charlie Ellis and Abbie Noronha launched their brand ‘Ellis + Noronha’ and, working with the same hand embroidery focus that they developed during their three years on the Degree course, they launched their second collection, ‘Self’, in mid-September.

“In the form of a fashion film,  this collection has much fewer pieces than our first collection, five in total, all heavily worked and very embellished. The pieces have drawn on our traditional hand embroidery expertise; challenging ourselves with techniques such as large scale Goldwork and complex construction.

To give you some context, the film and the pieces are inspired by dealing with mental health difficulties, particularly in the creative industries. It’s very topical particularly with there being so much pressure on artists and creatives to keep themselves going in the current climate. Each piece is inspired by a different way in which people deal with mental health challenges. For example, ‘armour’ for those who put up a tough exterior to shield themselves, ‘comfort’ for those who need a tranquil break, there are pieces entitled ‘confidence’, ‘release’ and ‘authority’, which you can read more about on our website. 

We started the ‘Self’ collection before the pandemic, but somehow it now seems more relevant to us than it did before. With everyone going through such a tough time these past months, self-care is more important than ever! We had also decided to produce a film long before the pandemic, yet somehow it became the only way we could have shown the collection anyway!  Although we produce fashion pieces, we don’t want to go down the traditional fashion route of seasons, catwalks and showrooms, so branching out into a film seemed like a great way for us to make our mark with this collection…and it will help us to reach a much more widespread audience both nationally and internationally.

Over the next couple of months, we are releasing a diffusion line for the collection. Alongside our main collections, we produce capsule collections of jewellery. In the run up to Christmas we will be releasing a collection of jewellery and accessory pieces that are inspired by our film collection which is an exciting next step.”

For further information and to see more of the ‘Self’ collection please see the recent Blog post and you can follow Ellis + Noronha’s Instagram page.  and see the full collection on their website.

We are very excited to be teaching a series of one day classes at Lancaster Castle this month.  RSN Tutor and textile expert on the BBC TV programme Repair Shop, Sara-Jane Dennis will be teaching four different classes for all levels from Wednesday 28 – Saturday 31 October.  Students can choose to stitch a Crewelwork bird, Silk Shading Flower, Goldwork brooch or to de-stress in a unique Mindfulness class.

For those who have never picked up a needle before, choose the Introduction to Crewelwork bird (Wednesday 28 October) or the relaxing Mindfulness class to make a ‘Tree of Life’ lavender bag (Saturday 31 October).  For anyone who likes to stitch and wants to take the next step, learn what it means to ‘paint with a needle’ and create a stunning flower using the Silk Shading technique (Thursday 29 October); alternatively stitch a Goldwork brooch (Friday 30 October).  Classes start from £114 (cost of classes vary depending upon kit which is included).

Dating back to Roman times, Lancaster Castle is one of the most historically fascinating surviving buildings in the country.  Please note that there are currently no internal tours of the Castle and only the courtyards and café are open to the visiting public.  Covid protocols are in place, including social distanced tables in our classroom and clear in and out routes.

View Lancaster Classes and Book

The RSN will teach two Workshops at this year’s Knitting & Stitching Show Special Edition, ‘Heart of Gold’ in Goldwork and ‘Hearts & Flowers’ in Surface Stitch Embroidery.

The Knitting & Stitching Show Special Edition is a newly adapted event for 2020 to be held at Alexandra Palace in London from 8-10 October. For one year only, the show will be transformed to present two of the best-loved elements – shopping and workshops – in a safe and spacious environment, and the RSN is thrilled to be teaching a workshop every day from 11.45am-1.15pm. This year, the workshops will be located in large purpose built studios in the West Hall, with plenty of space and restricted numbers.

‘Heart of Gold’, on Thursday and Saturday, will introduce you to the Goldwork technique, using sewing machine thread and three types of synthetic gold. You will learn Couching, Cutwork, Plunging and tying back thread ends.

‘Hearts & Flowers’, on Friday and Sunday, will introduce you to surface stitches, or ‘freestyle embroidery’. This is such a versatile technique, and lends itself to a huge variety of styles, subject matter and objects. You will learn Stem Stitch, Detached Chain, French Knots and Seeding Stitch. On completion, you will be able to turn your work into a special card, lavender sachet, or small framed work of art.

This year, the Shopping Village will be located in the Great Hall and will feature approximately 100 exhibitors offering supplies across knitting, crochet, dressmaking, quilting, embroidery and other textile crafts. Tickets are restricted to ensure social distancing guidelines are met, and will therefore be offered for either a morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) session. Entry tickets cost £11 (plus a booking fee per transaction).

More information on K&S Show and to buy tickets

For bookings and more information on the workshops

Please note that, due to the current rules, those who wish to attend an RSN Workshop must book in advance, as you cannot book on the day as in past years.

See you there!