Day 28 : Metalwork Fox

Morning revealed the river still moving gently and reflecting light.It was not exactly a sunny day, but it wasn't raining and was still.

The swans were in evidence on the other side of the river.

I did not, however, have time to watch the river, but set off for the Palace and my needlework class.

The unicorn is still there to welcome me. The spring flowers were out in brilliant colours.



There were 13 in our class, three young Japanese women with limited English, a woman originally from the US but now living in England, myself and 8 women from various parts of England.



We were working on Becky Hogg's Metalwork Fox kit. Becky has a range of charming metalwork animals.



We spent the first hour and a half padding  our fox with layers of felt.

We were in the stock room, the one with the round windows, where I did my first RSN class in 2015.


It has good views over the gardens and the windows open - a good mechanism for controlling the heat in the room.

We learned four basic metalwork stitch techniques, passing thread, purl pearl, chipping and cutwork.



At lunchtime I visited the RSN shop and had a look around. It is always interesting to look at the various bits casually left around the classrooms. This is part of a crewel piece.












By 4pm I had a little bit of three of the techniques worked.  I am reasonably familiar with all four, but not practiced in any of them. I do so prefer to finish a project step by step rather than doing little bits of each - but understand why this isn't possible in classes like this. Becky Hogg's instructions and demonstrations were very clear.



This is where I got by the end of the day.

The Palace was closing as we left .

I stopped to photograph the ceiling of the Anne Boleyn Gate.

I thought the design might translate well into embroidery.

Back at the hotel I tossed up whether to continue working on the fox, or continue with Nicola's Herdwick. I think it better to finish the Herdwick first.


I managed to get to dinner before it got dark in order to catch the last rays of the sunset.

The swans were active, moving all over the river.
































A lovely day bookended by Old Father Thames.