Working with the Royal School Of Needlework
In 2011 I had the great pleasure and opportunity to work with the degree students at The Royal School of Needlework and it remains one of the most surreal moments of my life.
3rd year degree students working on the large Georg Jensen banner
Working at Hampton Court Palace, where the school is based, the then degree program leader James Hunting and his team allowed me access to their fantastic and talented students for 3 weeks to complete the Georg Jensen 2012 campaign.
With just 3 weeks to complete 7 pieces, the students were fantastically productive and were key to the completion of the project.
Hand-embroidery is careful and delicate work at the best of times but when stitching into paper it becomes even more delicate. Working into paper was a method only few of the students has encountered before, so there was a bit of trial and error to begin with. Some students, all of whom volunteered their time between their coursework, decided to take a step back when they realised that we had to pre-make the holes before we could begin embroidering - a laborious and often tedious task.
View from our work space within the palace.
However, the beautiful surroundings spurred us on and we had the majority of the campaign pieces completed by the end of the 3 weeks.
Two large pieces remained to be finished and 4 of the students generously helped me complete the project over the Christmas period of 2011 and for that I am forever grateful.
A huge thank you to all the team at the Royal School of Needlework at the time and particular thanks to Grace Sheldrick, Kate Nolan, Hannah Newton and Samantha Durant who helped me in that final week.
