Royal School of Needlework

I spent most of the day packing my sewing supplies for my upcoming trip to San Francisco to begin my diploma course at the Royal School of Needlework. I will need an entire suitcase just to house my supplies. The diploma course is the next phase of study after the Certificate Course, which I have already completed. Lasting ten days, this intensive course features Advanced Goldwork, a project I designed and must complete before the deadline. I'm really looking forward to it.

Although I completed my design ideas yesterday, I still had to figure out stitch placement and thread choices so I brought home my sketch pad and completed that portion of the task. Now I'm working on laundry so I can complete my packing tomorrow. My plane departs Friday morning and I have a ton of stuff to do before leaving.

The Certificate Course consisted of four module areas of study: silk shading, Jacobean crewel, goldwork, and blackwork. It took all of five years with which to complete and I'm expecting the diploma course to last at least as long. I haven't had an opportunity to scan the mockups of Advanced Goldwork, but I would like to share my project from 2007's module.

First module of Certificated Course, Silk Shading, is a study in long and short stitch. Working from a photograph, the design is replicated in single strands of Anchor floss on silk dupioni. (See acutal photo below).