Advanced Silk Shading

 Lucy writes: Advanced silk shading is one of the techniques studied for the diploma at the Royal School of Needlework. The subject should be a photograph of an animal, bird, fish or butterfly. I took a risk by using a photograph not of a live bird, but of a model: a recreation of the dodo, which is exhibited in the Oxford Natural History Museum. All Oxford dwellers have a great affection for the Oxford dodo, mummified remnants of which are in the keeping of the museum: it inspired the dodo in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and is said to be a caricature of the author himself. This is my embroidered tribute to the long-dead bird, the author and the book.

Vestment Mending Days in London for 2020

We have confirmed dates for Vestment Mending in London for the first half of 2020, in St James' Spanish Place.

All are welcome! See more about these days here. Email the Guild to register your interest: lucyashaw@gmail.com

January 25^th

March 14^th

May 9^th

These will take place at:

St James's Roman Catholic Church

22 George Street

London W1U 3QY (click for a map)

Burse-making course at Royal School of Needlework: exclusive to the Guild of St Clare

Burse-making at the RSN with Heather Lewis


The Guild of St Clare is collaborating with the Royal School of Needlework to provide a special one day course in burse-making. This is a unique opportunity to learn the skills necessary to make one of the more tricky pieces of the traditional vestment set. The tuition will be provided by RSN tutor Heather Lewis, who led our previous Guild of St Clare course in ecclesiastical goldwork, back in 2012. The course will take place at Hampton Court Palace in the RSN's teaching apartments, and is subsidised by the Guild of St Clare.


The date is the 8th February 2020, and the course will run between 10am and 4pm. Tea and coffee are provided; you will need to bring a packed lunch, or you can visit one of Hampton Court Palace's cafes. The cost, including the materials and the special Guild of St Clare discount, is £105.


For more information please email Lucy on lucyashaw@gmail.com, or book through the registration link on the LMS website.

Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey

Against a liturgical backdrop of the Feast of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls, the Guild of St Clare held its fifth Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey.

Fr John Hunwicke led the retreat as chaplain and gave us some perceptive and stimulating spiritual conferences on St John Henry Newman. The Douai Guestmaster, Fr Oliver Holt, very kindly gave us a tour of the Douai archives which include some beautiful eighteenth century vestments, made by nuns from the convent at Lanherne.

They are in remarkably good condition and it was a privilege to be able to see them.

 Work undertaken included making several faldstool covers, a commission for the Latin Mass Society, as well as repairs to chasubles and an embroidered stole.

We are delighted to have found such a comfortable and welcoming venue at Douai Abbey and look forward to returning there in February next year.

    

Cardinal Burke in London

It was an honour to be asked to make a faldstool cover for Cardinal Burke's visit to London in September. Here he is, pictured celebrating Mass from the faldstool with its new Guild of St Clare cover. Thanks to John Aron for the photographs.

Faldstool cover for Cardinal Burke's visit to London

Our most recent commission, from the Latin Mass Society, is a gift of a set of faldstool covers in four liturgical colours for the parish of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane. This, the red one, is the first to be completed; it is needed immediately for the Pontifical Low Mass to be celebrated by Cardinal Burke on 16th September.

The Guild was given a white faldstool cover, made by Serpone in Rome, to copy. The original used mainly machine techniques, so we adapted the design and made a hand-stitched version.

We added velvet piping to the cushion; the sumptuous effect is well worth the time it took to put in

The fabric is Winchester brocade, supplied by Watts & Co., and the braid has an oak leaf design and comes from M. Perkins.

It will be an honour to see this in use for Cardinal Burke's visit.

Winner of Guild of St Clare sponsorship to the RSN

The Guild of St Clare is delighted to announce its first ever appointment to our new Royal School of Needlework sponsorship scheme. 

James Sharpe is specialist social worker in Hackney who converted to Catholicism four years ago. He has been a student of the arts since childhood, and studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge.

James's Celtic knot work design,
undertaken  at the Prince's School of Traditional Art

  

He is interested in many traditional crafts including iconography, calligraphy, illumination, geometry and printing and has dedicated a great deal of time to learning about them.

Sarah Homfray's William Morris inspired design,
stitched by James
under Sarah's long-distance tuition scheme

 More recently he has developed an interest in embroidery, especially medieval church embroidery; studying for the RSN Certificate course will enable him to pursue this skill to a professional level. We very much look forward to having the benefit of James's interests and expertise at future Guild of St Clare events, and wish him well as he begins his studies in October.