Welcome to the Royal School of Needlework Degree programme in Hand Embroidery here at
Hampton Court Palace.
The Royal School of Needlework offer the only specialist degree
programme in hand embroidery in Europe.
I chose to study hand embroidery because it's
something I've always wanted to do.
I'd heard of the Royal School of Needlework by chance
and looked it up and saw what they did here and knew if I was going to do it, this is
the place I was going to do it.
I chose to study this particular course because I've
had a life-long interest in embroidery and needlework and I've done quite a few courses
at the Royal School of Needlework in the past.
It's very modern, it's very contemporary.
You're entirely allowed to express yourself as an artist and use your traditional RSN
embroidery that you're taught, to do something entirely new with it and it's very exciting.
I don't think anything else like it exists.
It's amazing working in a palace.
Every day I walk up the drive and I'm just astounded and just so happy that I work here and actually
in the apartments the studio's amazing and the library's amazing too.
So there's everything we need.
I've done dyeing, printing and the tutors are really good at helping me to find
a space to do it.
In the library there is the handling collection. When I was doing
a project recently on a baby's bonnet, we got some of those items out so we could actually
look at them. You had the opportunity to pick them up, turn them inside out, look at the
seams, admire the stitching, see how it was put together and that's an enormous benefit
when you're actually trying to do some research on a piece of work.
We have an amazing library.
There are a lot of books and they all connect to embroidery.
I started the course with my
strength being sewing and needlework but then since working on many different projects,
I've realised that one of my strengths is actually designing and that's something I'd
quite like to develop further.
We have an extensive number of visiting lecturers here at RSN.
That may range from fashion designers who work with us on collaborative projects
or it may be through visiting speakers for our professional development symposium.
Recently all three years on the degree course got to work with E.Tautz men's fashion label.
That was a fantastic opportunity to be doing a live project and seeing it then walk down
the catwalk.
Taking part in a designer's collection helps us to go further with our own designs
and be influenced by the most amazing craftsmen in the world.
As practitioners in relation to hand embroidery
we bring to the course experience in research, practice, and industrial contact.
Being so close to your tutors means they're very aware of what you're doing and your inspirations
and the way you work.
We have a number of bursaries available each year for students
to apply for once they've enrolled onto the programme. One second year student undertook
a visit to Japan as part of a work placement and the bursary that she received enabled
her to undertake that trip.
By the end of the three years the students have a really clear
understanding of how their own practice relates to the history of textiles and also to all
the key issues in the practice of hand embroidery today.
The degree programme in hand embroidery
is a very unique specialist course and within a year you'll be working on live projects
within the creative industries.
You get very close to your friends and your classmates
and your tutors and I don't think you'd find that in a class of three hundred art students
somewhere else. Your tutor would have no idea what you are doing all the time but they are
constantly aware of where you are, where you're going.
I didn't want to just do traditional embroidery.
I wanted something where I could focus on my artwork as well.
I think this course is perfect for that.