Meet the second half of our RSN Third year BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery Degree students, and learn more about their Major Projects, which will be on display at New Designers in London next month.
Philippa Palmer – ‘Red’
Red’s emotional and psychological effect is the focus of Philippa Palmer’s current collection. Through her hand embroidery designs, she explores the power this potent colour evokes within the couture fashion industry. This new work takes inspiration from research into the history and psychological effect of the colour. Her work material and concept led, using a range of traditional hand embroidery techniques in a contemporary style.
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Severina Seidl – ‘Maleficium’
Maleficium, the latest work by hand embroiderer Severina Seidl, explores themes of despair and hope, inspired by Krabat, the novel by German author Otfried Preußler. A book that profoundly shaped her youth, it resonated with her as a hopeless romantic and daydreamer, drawn to melancholic narratives. Through her work, she weaves her own stories—tales of dark magic, death, and fear, counterbalanced by the redemptive power of love.
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Stella Buckingham – ‘Rural Idyll’
A romanticised, nostalgic evocation of the countryside was the vision for hand embroiderer Stella Buckingham’s collection Rural Idyll. Descended from a long line of farmers, she drew from emotional ties to the lifestyle and her imagination was captured by the link between lacemaking and agriculture within her family. It was this unlikely combination of delicacy and practicality that inspired her theme, which reinterprets the frivolity of 18th-Century pastoral fantasy, with the grounding of a personal perspective.
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Madelaine-Rose Walker – ‘Urban Sirens’
The mythical and mysterious Cornish love tale ‘The Mermaid of Zennor’ has been Madelaine-Rose’s inspiration. The tale takes us through an unconventional love story between a Cornish man with perfect pitch and a beautiful stranger who was secretly a mermaid. To portray this enchanting story through hand embroidery, Madelaine-Rose uses the important artform of self-expression to showcase ‘The Mermaid of Zennor’ in her own bold and individual artistic style.
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Alana Holmes – ‘Celestial Embrace’
The relationship between the wearer, the garment and the embroidery is of key value to hand embroiderer Alana Holmes’ practice. Celestial Embrace is an embellished wrap that offers the wearer the opportunity to become an integral part of the creative journey, embodying an experience of elegance, grace, and empowerment.
Ethereal beauty, baroque opulence and the grandeur of religious and royal settings are the creative inspiration used in the design of Celestial Embrace.
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Edith Miller – ‘Exoskeleton’
Exoskeleton is a sculptural, embroidered bag by hand embroiderer Edith Miller, that reimagines wearable design as a platform for conceptual investigation.
Inspired by the protective outer shells of barnacles, the work transforms a functional object into a richly textured, highly detailed artefact. Using goldwork embroidery, beads, sequins, and repurposed zips, Edith creates a visual and tactile language that examines the tension between interior and exterior, resilience and vulnerability.
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Lowri James – Cydblethu
Cydblethu, the new collection of hand embroidery for fashion by Lowri James explores the symbol of the Celtic knot as a representation of endless time. Seeing a connection in the intertwining lines from her Welsh heritage with the thread she knots, manipulates, and draws in her practice, Lowri looked at the theme of memory through instinctively drawing fragments of collected textiles in linear ways.
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Tilia Svinndal – ‘Apricity’
Through her latest work Apricity’, Tilia draws inspiration from her experience growing up surrounded by the ever-changing colours of the seasons in Norway. Her work is a vibrant interpretation of many different elements of her upbringing, where nature’s role plays the most significant part. Finding intrigue in the way nature can carry personal emotions, memories and evoke nostalgia, she uses these experiences in an illustration-led collection, inviting viewers to see the world through her eyes.
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Would you like to see these pieces in person?
Come along to New Designers in London this July to see the Major Projects in detail, and to chat to our Degree Graduate Students about their work.
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