Post by Ashley Outhouse
The Royal School of Needlework is “the international centre of excellence for the art of hand embroidery.” The RSN (for short) was founded in 1872 by Lady Victoria Welby with goals to restore historic textiles and to bring pieces back to life. The RSN is located at Hampton Court Palace in West London and offers courses for both beginner students and advanced. All classes are taught in small classes by tutors who have years of experience working with technical embroidery. The RSN offers four different programs:
1. Day classes
2. Certificate and Diploma in Technical Hand Embroidery
3. BA Hand Embroidery for Fashion, Interiors, Textile Arts
4. RSN Future Tutors Programme
The UK: Stitching a Cultural Identity study abroad students will be learning crewelwork and goldwork while at the Royal School of Needlework. Each technique will be taught in two week increments, for a total of four weeks at the RSN. We will learn how to complete start an embroidery project by framing, completing samples, and designing motifs. We will also be combining both techniques in order to complete a final motif that will show how much we have learned from the beginning of the course.
Above is a picture of part of the classroom that we will be working in. The lighting
in the room is just perfect for stitching. Most of our time will be spent in these seats working on our embroidery skills.
Pictured above is a few of the many different wool skeins available for students to use in their work. Choosing colors is difficult when there are so many to choose from. We were advised to choose colors with the same hue in order to complete shading pieces. We were also allowed to grab a few that complemented each other and a contrasting color as well.