Elizabeth Elvin

Elizabeth Elvin has enjoyed a long and varied career teaching hand embroidery. She joined the RSN in 1961 when it was based at Princes Gate, Kensington and where she went on to specialise in the teaching of gold and silk and ecclesiastical embroidery.

She became Principal of the RSN in 1987, her first task overseeing the RSN’s move from Princes Gate to Hampton Court Palace. She re-instated the Apprenticeship and introduced Day Classes and the Certificate Courses. She has now re-established her teaching career and has taught in Australia, San Francisco and other areas of the USA, as well as many parts of the UK, teaching RSN Day Classes.

Elizabeth has taken part in various community projects, teaching silk shading in the slums of Cairo to a wonderful group of young girls, and to a group of underprivileged young girls in Kenya. She also advises Fine Cell Work which teaches needlework to prison inmates in the UK.  She is helping to curate an exhibition on the life of the late Beryl Dean with whom she worked on many ecclesiastical projects from 1970 to the early 1990s.

She is currently an assessor for the Certificate & Diploma course and Moderator for the Future Tutors programme. Liz uses her wealth of experience to assess our students’ work to maintain the high standard of RSN work.

Elizabeth Elvin RSN Staff Portrait

Courses