Prestigious Commissions

Commonwealth Balcony Hanging

The Royal School of Needlework has been privileged to be involved in the creation of the Commonwealth Balcony Hanging as part of the Golden Jubilee Weekend Celebrations held in June 2002.

The project has utilised the combined creative and design skills of the staff and Apprentices. The timings of the project and the logistics of working with such huge volumes of fabric have stretched the RSN in many ways and a wealth of experience has been obtained. The RSN is justly proud of its involvement in this piece of history.

Initial discussions were held with Sir Michael Parker, Producer of the Golden Jubilee Weekend Celebrations shortly before Christmas in 2001. The RSN was asked to produce the commission. In mid-February the design was presented to the RSN by Keith Khan, director of the Commonwealth Parade in the Mall and of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games.

The design, an A4 size computer image was provided, giving the dimensions of the piece. The finer details of each section of the design; the central crown, the Commonwealth symbols, the Queen's personal badges, the garlands of roses and leaves had to be scaled up to life-size and interpreted into working modals using different fabrics and techniques. Fabrics were sourced and approval given by Sir Michael Parker and Keith Khan, the latter making regular visits to the RSN to approve each stage of the work as it progressed.

The commission proved to be a challenge for the RSN in terms of size, timing and co-ordination. Overall the hanging measured 11 metres (35 feet) in width by 8.3 metres (27 feet) in height, with an archway to allow Palace access cut into the design. A mid-blue background incorporated a central crown flanked by two Commonwealth symbols and two of the Queen's personal badges were created in 3D relief, using appliqué, fabric manipulation, quilling, beadwork and machine embroidery. Forty metres (130 feet) of rose and leaf garlands linked the flag representations made by school children from the Commonwealth countries. As they arrived, the flags were attached by hand.

Following the display at Stitch 2003, Olympia, we will endeavour to provide details of any forthcoming displays at future dates.

Ceremonial Embroidered Woolsack for the Royal Hospital, Chelsea

On 19th September, all those involved with creation of the Woolsack and Mace were invited to a special luncheon at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The photograph shows the splendid Mace and Woolsack and from left to right, Heather Fordham - Head of RSN Workroom, General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie GCB OBE - Governor of the Royal Hospital, Liz Elvin, RSN Principal, RSN Major John Tatham - Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and Margaret Dier, Amanda Berry, Jenny Adin, Rebecca Hogg and Hazel Arnott - RSN Workroom staff.

This project came about because of the desire of a private donor to give a sum of money to the pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The pensioners have never had a ceremonial mace, so the decision was made to use the money to commission the design and making of one. The mace will be on permanent display in the Hospital's Museum so it was necessary to devise a suitably regal means of display. A traditional woolsack was to be commissioned and on which the mace would sit with a craftsman built table to support it.

The RSN then received the exciting news that we were to play an important role in this joint commission. The project was also being sponsored by several of the city livery companies, the Woolmen, the Broderers and the Carpenters. The RSN was asked to embroider the arms of these companies, together with those of the private donor and the Hospital emblem, all to be applied to the woolsack.

The woolsack itself was made by Jacqueline Hyman from the Textile Restoration Studio in Altrincham, Cheshire. The outer covering is of the same wool baize used to produce the pensioners' famous red uniform coats. The woolsack is filled with a traditional pure wool fibre. It also contains a specially designed Perspex form to support the considerable weight of the mace. The completed woolsack was delivered to the School in March giving us only two months to complete the majority of the work. We were given rather blurry colour images of the five crests which required a greater degree of detail. Hand coloured drawings of the crests were produced in order to refine the shading of the images, ready for working in stitch.

Two Royal Hospital emblems were to be worked, each nine inches in height and to be positioned at the centre on each side of the woolsack. The regimental sprays in the centres of these emblems, were worked by Philippa Turnbull of the English Crewelwork Company, in a wool/silk mix thread. The surrounding garter, crown and label were worked at the RSN. The other crests were to measure seven inches in height, all to be embroidered using the silk shading technique of long and short stitch with highlights in goldwork. Some of the slightly larger areas of flat colour were created by applying silk fabric. A range of stranded cottons was chosen, to be used for all the emblems and so creating a unified whole. Each crest was worked on a separate frame so that they could all be stitched to the woolsack simultaneously as time was limited. The outline designs were transferred to the baize using the prick and pounce method, and were then painted using oil paint to make permanent. The shading was worked freely within these lines, i.e. painting with the needle, simply referring to the coloured drawings. All the crests were intricate in the detail required and each took around 150 hours to complete.

Once each crest was complete, the surrounding baize was cut out to a decorative cartouche shape, ready to be applied to the woolsack. Scrupulous plotting and measuring took place before the labels were applied to the woolsack. The cut edges of the baize cartouches were finished using a hand-twisted wool cord. Everything had to be sewn on using fine curved needles.

The final stage was to gather the corners of the woolsack to produce the traditional 'ears'. A heavy cord was specially made, in colours to tone with the embroidery, to be stitched around the ears. This was highly effective in drawing all the colours together.