The RSN’s efforts are firmly focused on returning back to teaching at the soonest. We have missed everyone in the Classroom and will be sad not to see our Future Tutor Graduates and Certificate and Diploma (C&D) Students receive their Certificates during our annual Graduation Ceremony, which would normally have been held next week.

Standing on the East Front of Hampton Court Palace, with the warm sun forcing us to seek shade under the yew trees as we clap every students’ achievement, is one of those rare moments of pure joy when we all come together delighting in each and every achievement. This year there might not be an exhibition of students’ work at the Palace but it will be online instead so you will have a very much detailed view of the beautiful pieces of hand embroidery, each designed and stitched to perfection and just waiting to be admired.

The RSN’s first C&D Online Show will ‘open’ on Wednesday 8 July at midday. The Show will be viewed by thousands of people, giving those living and following the RSN on the other side of the world the opportunity to see our Graduates wonderful work!  Meanwhile, the Future Tutors’ Spotlights are already on the website where you can read about the FT students’ RSN journey and view their work.

With no C&D Summer Intensive or Tours, the RSN is quiet and the Embroidery Studio is waiting to re-open as well. Social Distancing will change how the Classrooms and Studio look; it will also alter how we interact and we are ready to return and embrace the new normal. The physical areas might be empty but in various homes around London, Surrey, Berkshire, Middlesex and as far-flung as Cumbria and Devon, members of the RSN team are working hard to ensure that we can return to teaching in a timely and safe manner. We are working to bring our furloughed colleagues back as well as our C&D and Day Class Students and to welcome our Studio customers with their commissions for us to get started on.

Certificate & Diploma

Over the last 14 weeks, we have engaged with our students online finding new ways to ensure that, if they want to, we can help them to progress with their learning. We thank all our students along with our small pool of Tutors who have, between them, demonstrated that online classes really do work. We know the classroom is important to many of you but online tuition has allowed a different way to learn and to access tuition wherever you are. We have realised that, with our recent test in Australia, online is going to play a big part in the future of the RSN.

We hope to be announcing a date for our return to the classroom shortly and look forward to welcoming new and old friends.

Day Classes

Online Tuition has given the RSN a new way to share Day Classes online and people from all round the world have been able to participate at a time when the need to occupy hands and minds is so important. We know that in the short term Online Classes will form the backbone of our delivery at least until Christmas and we are looking at how we can deliver a few classes on site. With this in mind, we plan to offer a few classes at HCP in August, three of them with Rachel Doyle which you can book now: ‘Back to Basics: Blackwork’, ‘Back to Basics: Silk Shading’ and ‘Monogrammed Handkerchief in Broderie Anglaise’.

Back to Basics: Blackwork, with Rachel Doyle

Back to Basics: Silk Shading, with Rachel Doyle

Monogrammed Handkerchief Broderie Anglaise, with Rachel Doyle

RSN Embroidery Studio

The Studio, although quiet at the Palace, is still humming in the background answering enquiries and forming a list of all potential customers requesting an appointment to bring in their precious pieces for formal estimates. We have met customers to return completed commissions, but at the bottom of the Palace driveway outside a closed gate under the gaze of a Security Guard. We are looking forward to seeing our Studio Embroiderers return, waking up the rooms, opening the cupboards and starting to work on the amazing pieces we are fortunate to have come through our rooms!

As you can appreciate, a huge amount of work is going on behind the scenes to ensure everyone’s safety. Over the coming weeks, you will see further changes as we adapt to the evolving Government guidelines and we thank you for your continuing patience.