Term 2 is underway.

Tags

#royalschoolofneedlework, Future Tutor, Goldwork, RSN

The second term of my journey on the RSN Future Tutors course is in full swing and I am currently working on a traditional Goldwork piece called Three Gold Symbols.

This is one of the set pieces on the Future Tutors course and takes us through learning many of the traditional Goldwork techniques and applications of gold threads. The Three symbols that we are stitching are a Pomegranate, a Crown, and a Fleur de Lys and these can all be seen in the top row of the photo of the historical piece below.

I am really enjoying working on this piece and have certainly come to appreciate how much preparation and padding is required before any gold is actually applied, and that the application of the gold threads is tediously slow, and then there are the all ends to plunge and tie back! However the end result is really worthwhile.

These same symbols have been stitched by apprentices at the RSN since the very early days of the school and I have been fortunate to view a number of beautifully stitched examples held in the RSN collection. In the photo here you can see one of the historical pieces stitched by an RSN student some 50+ years ago.

Student Goldwork from the RSN Historical collection.

While the Goldwork piece is keeping me busy right now, the other techniques to be mastered this term include an introduction to Silkshading, Stumpwork sampling, and Blackwork. Lots to keep me stitching every day.

Recreational Stitching.

Last weekend I did manage to find time to do one of the RSNs brilliant weekend classes, a bright Stumpwork Flamingo designed and taught by the lovely Sara Rickards. This Flamingo is a fun and challenging design with beautiful silk fabrics, goldwork and detached elements. Sara always packages up the most beautiful kits, it is like opening a wonderful gift.

I really enjoyed the two days of class though I have not quite finished yet. The class brought another pleasant surprise as I found out that one of the other students and I shared a mutual good friend back in Australia. How lovely to have a good catch up.

Stumpwork Flamingo by Sara Rickards.

https://wellembroidered.co.uk

I must now head back to stitch down more gold threads …

End of Term and a little more Recreational Stitching

Tags

#royalschoolofneedlework, Canvaswork, Crewelwork, Future Tutor

1st Term draws to a close

The end of my first term as a student on the RSN Future Tutors course is fast approaching and I am required to hand in my completed embroideries for assessment on Thursday this week. Then I get to enjoy a two week break for Christmas, before returning to class ready for Term 2 in early January 2020.

For this course each assessable embroidered piece needs to be stitched and properly mounted on card to meet the brief and RSN requirements – including my name tag stitched onto the back. The pieces also need to be accompanied by the relevant paperwork with includes the Design drawings, the stitch plans, any reference images, any sampling or testing of threads and stitches, a record of time taken to stitch, a materials list, and of course the self assessment forms. I will admit that completing the paperwork sometimes feels more onerous than the stitching, but in the end it does give me a good set of reference material for future development of my stitching, and hopefully will assist me to teach the technique in the future.

For this first term I have themed each of my embroideries around the ‘Grounds and Gardens of Hampton Court Palace’ and I will have three technique pieces to hand in, these being Jacobean Crewelwork ( Frolicking in Home Park ) , Canvas Stitches ( Dawn over the Thames at Hampton Court), and Canvas Shading ( Artichoke ). All of the embroideries in this term have used Appleton’s 2 ply crewel wool, with some stranded cottons, linen, and cotton perle threads also added into the Canvas stitches piece. My Canvas Stitches piece is based on a beautiful photo taken by the talented Noleen Wyatt-Jones, while the other two are based on my photos taken around Hampton Court Palace. A glimpse of the inspirations for each piece and a segment of the stitched works are in the photos below.

Rear Left Photo – Deer in Home Park, HCP. Front left – Deer element in Jacobean Crewelwork.

Centre Photo – Dawn over the Thames at Hampton Court – taken by Noleen Wyatt-Jones. Canvas Stitches in progress.

Rear Right Photo – Artichoke in the Hampton Court Palace vegetable garden. Front Right – Canvas Shading in progress

In addition to stitching the three main assessable pieces, this term we have also completed an initial set of introductory classes, had two ‘Master Classes’ in Mountmellick and Ribbonwork, enjoyed a number of interesting Art and Design Classes, and explored historic embroidery via a Collection Lecture on Counted work. It has been a very full term indeed.

Recreational Stitching

Amongst all of the coursework I have also managed this term to attend 3 of the RSN weekend classes that are offered to all stitchers. I attend these as recreational stitching just for my own pleasure, though I find I also learn a lot from observing various tutors and their teaching styles, along with getting to meet a great cross section of keen embroidery students.

This weekend I was fortunate to have attended Rachel Doyle’s 2 day class in Stumpwork Figures, and it was a wonderful class with a great kit and many tips and insights on creating a figure in stumpwork. I still have a lot of practice to do on creating hands and faces to get my figures looking realistic. I found that the sparkly blue fabric that Rachel used for the background gives a great icy effect to the piece but is very hard to photograph.

Stumpwork Figure – Ice Skater by Rachel Doyle

Here is my version of the little stumpwork Ice Skater. I think I might have to trim her ear muffs a little smaller yet, and that front hand needs to be smaller and tucked into her sleeve a little further, however it was a great weekend learning experience.

Now I must get back to finalising my assessment paperwork and finish mounting my Canvas Stitches ready for Thursday.

Wish me luck and Merry Christmas to you all.

Jacobean Crewel module and a little Recreational Stitching.

Tags

#royalneedlework, Crewelwork, Crewelwork; stitches, Future Tutor, RSN

The RSN Future Tutors course has a very packed schedule and we are now well into the first term. We have received our marks and assessors comments for our first Basic Skills piece and I am very happy to get the feedback on this as we have already moved onto stitching our next assessed pieces. Must remember that I still need to pay attention to the rebate when Mounting!

Jacobean Crewelwork

The first assessed technique I have stitched is Jacobean Crewelwork. Our tutor has guided us through developing our design, choosing colours, applying the design to the fabric and then finally commencing the stitching. I developed a stitch plan and, using traditional Linen Twill fabric and Appleton’s crewel wools, I am now almost finished stitching the design. In my design I have tried to represent the elements I have seen in the parks around Hampton Court Palace and I think it is coming along fairly well.

Dogs everywhere!

Art and Design classes have also commenced – this is an area that I do not have very much confidence in. The exercises that our tutor has set will hopefully build on my very limited skills, and maybe one day I will be able to get a sketch design down on paper so that it actually looks like the design I have in mind. Until then I will practice and continue to trace and adapt.

Recreational Stitching

I love to try new stitch techniques so when I saw Jacquie McDonald‘s Stumpwork Vegetable Garden advertised on the RSN website, I had to make time to take this one day class – luckily for me it was on the weekend. It was a wonderful kit with all the supplies so nicely packaged and the fabric printed ready for us to commence. Jacqui took us through all of the vegetables one by one as we created our own gardens.

Lovely Kit

Here is my finished piece still in the hoop. I think I might use it in the top of a box when I find time to make one, or maybe I will be able to find a wooden box with the right sized opening. Love the Cauliflower!

Jacqui McDonald Vegetable Patch design, stitched by Sally Randle

Knitting and Stitching Show – Alexandra Palace.

The other adventure I have been on recently is attending the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace. This event is huge and I found it somewhat overwhelming to see so many stalls and traders – and so many goodies – all in one place.

I was lucky enough to be demonstrating on the RSN stand and also assisting in a Learning Curve class along with two of the other Future Tutors. The class was lots of fun and the students so eager to learn that the hour and a half just flew past. What a great experience. I will need to be more organised for it next year as I will get to lead one of the classes myself. So exciting!

I will also have to get my shopping list ready so I don’t get so distracted by all the shiny objects on sale. I mostly restricted myself to some interesting threads and needles this year. As Canvas Stitches is our next assessed module I was on the look out for interesting threads to include in my piece. I also found some curved Tapestry needles that might come in useful.

What a guy!

My other surprise from this event was that my husband purchased me a pair of handmade Ernest Wright embroidery scissors for our anniversary, which just happened to be right after the show. They are very beautiful, feel very good in the hand, cut superbly, and certainly are one of those tools to treasure for a lifetime then pass on. Ernest Wright have a Utube video on how they make their scissors that is worth watching.

Thanks for reading, now I must get back to stitching.

Boxing up the Whitework Ship

Tags

#royalschoolofneedlework, RSN, Whitework

The second RSN short course that I had enrolled in – just for a little recreational holiday stitching – was Advanced Box Making with Heather Lewis. This 2 day course was conducted over a Saturday and Sunday in mid August at Hampton Court Palace.

Creating fabric covered boxes – usually incorporating embroidery – is one of the techniques that the RSN offers as an option on their Diploma. Heather Lewis, our tutor, has been working at the RSN for almost 20 years in a variety of roles across both Studio work and tutoring, and she has significant experience in box making. She is actually now in the final stages of preparing to release a book on Box Making, and she brought along a number of her beautiful boxes to inspire us.

Fabric hinge on Purple box by Heather Lewis.

This was my first attempt at making this type of stitched box and for this advanced class we were encouraged to design our own box that would incorporate both a drawer and a hinge. I decided that I would also like to incorporate the Whitework piece that I had worked earlier in the month. The little Ship motif in Rachel Doyle’s design led me to selecting a navy coloured outer fabric with small anchors printed on it.

My fabric choices

The fabrics we used for our boxes were standard quilting cottons, as these hold up well to being firmly pulled and stitched around the cardboard forms. There was a lot of curved needle stitching in this piece, and lots of math/calculations working out exactly how to make all the pieces fit together.

My box making in progress

I am happy with how the whole box eventually came together – though I do need to pay more attention to mitred corners and ensuring to that the drawer fabric pattern matches and fits seamlessly into the front.

I was really happy when I found these really cute little Anchor charms in a bead shop in Kingston to use as drawer pulls which I think helped to finish the piece off nicely.

The Future Tutor course starts this week – Can’t wait for the adventure to start!

Moving in and getting on with Embroidery

Tags

#HamptonCourtPalace, #royalneedlework, #royalschoolofneedlework

From my last blog post you will be aware that I was super excited to have been offered a place by the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) on their 3 year Future Tutors course, and that taking up this offer involved packing up my life in Australia and moving to the U.K. to follow my dream. The planning and preparation for the move had taken over from everything else in my life for the last few months, and has been a huge effort, greatly supported by family and friends, with lots of tedious admin, some sheer physical hard work, and a little luck, but now its done.

As of this week we have finally settled into a cute little cottage in the village near Hampton Court Palace. The Future Tutors course will actually commence in early September so, just to keep my embroidery hand in, I decided to take a couple of recreational stitching day classes at the RSN during the second half of August. Fortunately this plan allowed me to have a break from assembling all the Ikea bits and pieces we purchased to furnish the cottage in order to make it our home for the next 3 years!

Being at the RSN also enabled me to catch up during lunch time with some of the lovely girls I had met in class last year – they were there all completing their Goldwork intensive classes. Really lucky to see the beautiful Goldwork work being done by Sonja, Louisa, Marlous and Caitlin.

Rachel Doyle – Sailing kit

My first RSN day class was with the lovely tutor and designer Rachel Doyle. The class piece was her gorgeous little “Sailing” boat design in Pulled Whitework. I first saw this design pop up on the RSN Facebook site when they were advertising the next batch of day classes and immediately knew that this was one I would love to try. I was also fortunate to have had Rachel as a tutor previously when doing Canvas Stitches classes, and I knew her designs and kits were really special. I briefly in a previous post about another of Rachel Doyle’s kits ‘ The Wool Rack’ that I completed last summer.

It was a lovely day to be at the Palace with the summer sun shining after a few grey days. For me it felt like I was returning home – the lovely RSN course managers Noleen and Hari are so welcoming – and Rachel had the room beautifully set up ready for the class of 12 eager students. See all those Purple bags!

In Class at RSN Hampton Court Palace

The best thing about taking a day class at the RSN is that you can simply turn up and everything is supplied – however I still need to remember to take my close up stitching glasses!

My stitched pulled work – Rachel Doyle’s design and kit

I did manage to get this piece finished and in my next post I will show you what I plan to do with it.

I am loving being back in the U.K.