Saturday 16th July
10:00am - 4:00pm
 
In this workshop, you will use a variety of gold threads, gold wires, gilded leather and silk fabric to create an embroidered letter in the style of a medieval illuminated capital.
 
The aim is to give the goldwork beginner or improver experience in using goldwork materials and methods and you will finish your letter with embroidery of your own choice.  
 
(N.B. There will be a choice of letters but some are not quite as suitable for this design as others. However, we can be creative.)
 
You will take away a complete or near-complete piece of embroidery which you can then frame, adapt as a cover for a book, turn into a greetings card or gift to a loved one - it’s up to you! Everything is packed into a cardboard box, so that your gold embroidery can be safely transported home.
 
Materials provided: silk; gold threads, gold wires and gilded leather; bondaweb; calico backing; silk ‘parchment’ backing fabric; sewing threads; embroidery threads. 
I will provide for use: needles, goldwork scissors, velvet cutting fabric; seat frames; wax; tracing pens.
 
What to bring: your own sewing kit (if you like), sharp fabric scissors, thimble (for sewing through leather)  and lunch.
 
Tutor: Nik Ravenscroft
 
A message from Nik: "I’ve been embroidering for decades but got drawn into learning and practising technical hand embroidery with the Royal School of Needlework about 20 years ago- I’ve been learning with them for a long time, as I wanted to know how to do goldwork and promptly got addicted to all sorts of techniques!  
 
I started sharing my enthusiasm by teaching hand embroidery to my own students, and have since developed and taught classes in secondary schools around Norfolk and at the Norwich Castle Museum, as well as to embroidery groups and WIs.  I particularly enjoy historic types of embroidery (Bayeux Stitch, tambour and Elizabethan stitches) but it’s the gorgeous colour of silk contrasting with the shine and glitter of metal threads that I find entrancing and want to pass on.
 
My workshops are designed to give students experience of stitches and materials, and the confidence to apply that knowledge and technique to their own designs."