Royal Yacht Brittania

I recently had an email from a lovely lady who is working on the Netflix production of The Crown.
As my mother designed the embroidery which hangs above the Queens bed on the Royal Yacht Britannia back in 1953, they have asked for permission to use the design in the film, and plan to make a replica. I actually have the original watercolour she did, I knew it was somewhere safe ... but the trouble with putting something away in a safe place means it then gets muddled in the brain filing cabinet ... so ensued a turning upside down of all the archiving of my mothers extensive works I have been doing, and of course it was not where it should have been! So it meant an upturning of almost the whole cottage ... But I now have a very organised studio ... but this morning I suddenly remembered where it was, went straight to the right drawer and there it was ...

Though she was commissioned to do the design, it was then given to the Royal School of Needlework to embroider, very finely in silks.

Quoted from here
"The silk embroidered panels were designed and created in 1953 and were the inspiration of Joan Nicholson, a young British designer, chosen by Sir Hugh Casson (HM The Queen’s chosen designer for Britannia’sState Apartments)."

Detail of side panel

Quoted from here  "The Queen wanted the embroidery to remind her of home when she was traveling abroad, with hedgerows, wild flowers and butterflies. Ivory silk from France was chosen for the background and it took several skilled workers many months to complete at the Royal School of Needlework in London. "

I am very proud of her ... a young mother with two small children, I was not around but so glad I still have this precious document, though very delicate and fragile and somewhat faded. It will now be filed in the correct place! Look out for The Crown when it is out (not sure when)

Centre of circular panel

Central panel detail

The embroidery in situ

The embroidery in situ

Canvaswork by Jennifer Gray

Yes, yes I am working really hard on quite a number of new designs of which more later but I just want to share something which I am quite pleased with and which gave me a warm glow and pat of encouragement which I needed at the beginning of the week ... knowing I would be sat in front of the computer for many hours ...

I saw on Pinterest a front cover illustration for a book which got my radars twirling. Canvas Work by Jennifer Gray pub 1960.
Here it is below and you can see why I might be excited. Maybe not but it did it for me and I looked further, went to the wonderful ABE BOOKS (secondhand books from all over the world) and found a copy for a few pounds £3.00 I think. What treasure! It came on Monday, and I was thrilled with it, my absolute tip top style of decoration and drawings good stitch explanations and diagrams, fantastic colour pallete.

THEN I saw a beautiful seat cover which immediately looked familiar in style and yes, it was by my mother! I have not seen this design before and it was worked during her time with the Needlework Development Scheme, and it is perfect. I spent the afternoon completely distracted by the whole thing and drew up the design in Illustrator, printed it onto white linen and am in the process of working it up hopefully turning into a design for our new range. Though it may be a lovely download too ... maybe both! But I will post the results very soon.

Enjoy the rest of the pages from the book I have scanned!

Front Cover

My surprise, my mother's design for a seat cover!

Detail

Page from Canvas Work by Jennifer Gray 1960   Buildings

Page from Canvas Work by Jennifer Gray 1960 ... Angels

Page from Canvas Work by Jennifer Gray 1960 ... Flora and Fauna

Page from Canvas Work by Jennifer Gray 1960 ... Birds

Needlework Development Scheme Leaflets

A while ago I gave a small talk with slides to the Embroiderer's Guild in Tunbridge Wells. It was a gentle talk about my mother's life's work with textiles and embroidery and her influence on my own work. She did work with the NDS during the early part of her career as a designer and author. Some of my audience had brought along their own copies of some of her books which was so heart warming ... I was also approached by a lady I have met a few times at exhibitions in the past who said she still had her mother's NDS leaflets used while teaching and would love me to have them. Shortly afterwards she and another friend and I had a lovely morning embroidering samples and looking through these fabulous leaflets. I also have the book And Sew to Embroider, also a NDS book which has my mother's designs in ... I have scanned them all inside and out and am sharing the covers here and thinking about best way to share all in time ... and there are more to come!

The first (below) is a complete four page leaflet and following are just the covers. The colours alone are lovely ... TREASURE indeed.

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 26B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 28B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 36"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 10B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 11B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 12B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 17B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 19B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 21B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 23B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 24B"

Needlework Development leaflet "Bulletin 25B"

Joan Nicholson Portrait by Jehan Daly

Yesterday evening a small miracle happened .... I was in the garden attempting to pull up weeds as a break from the computer toil of the day, and ... the land line rang. I never use my land line and am always a little suspicious of it when it rings as everyone I know rings me on my mobile these days.

The message was faint but enough to make me curious to call the number back. The number I called was answered by a lovely gentleman, who back in the 1980s had bought a painting at a country house sale. The painting was by Jehan Daly of a Mrs Roger Nicholson, my mother. He found my number from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He was on a mission to find out who the woman in the portrait was, and I was so excited to see it ... he sent it to me in an email shortly after our conversation. Here it is (above), and it is quite lovely. Jehen Daly was a great family friend of my parents from after the war and he with John Ward and Gordon Davies painted together on various projects and my mother also sat for them. This portrait, though I have never seen it before, is so familiar as I have many sketches of that same pose in my collection, by both Jehan and my father, also oil paintings of her likewise. I know that chair ... it is an old friend ... he was also my sister's godfather and a sweet and gentle man. I have a photo taken by my father of him holding a tabby kitten, black and white, he in ubiquitous tweeds, very of the time ... I am just now rummaging around in the garage to find the old photos so I can scan it in to send to Bill the owner of the painting. I also have an oil painting of Jehan at his easel by my father. 

Then I was ferreting around online to see what there was on Jehan Daly and there is not a great deal but  found this site and went on to type in Roger Nicholson and found this beautiful painting (below) which again I do not remember at all, but would dearly love to know where it is now. I would love it as it is of a period of my father's painting that I particularly love. He was SO good at colour ... exciting, riveting colour ... I remember thinking as a child that the colours he used were entirely a new breed of unknown colour, nothing like the colours I was learning at school ....

It just kept me thinking of these personal things out in the world I have no idea of the places they have settled or the journeys they have undergone to get there, as my father did not exhibit much, only painting for pleasure he was and is relatively unknown. I would love to have the time to bring them both into the public eye but I have so little time. Anyone out there who would love to do this as a labour of love? Any information about paintings by Roger would be gratefully received ... nancy@nancynicholson.co.uk

Now back to the cobwebs and dead mice in the garage!

Later .... found them! so lovely to find so many and smile through these lovely but very stinky old photos and so many slides! Anyway here is Jehan, my mother and father, all taken around that the time of the portrait. Also the others mentioned ...

Jehan Daly with one of John Wards children I think it may be in Folkestone
where the Wards had a flat.

Jehan Daly

Roger Nicholson

Joan Nicholson with same kitten and my sister Naomi

This is the painting my father Roger did of my mother at the same sitting ...

Jehan Day by Roger Nicholson

Madonna

Madonna and Child

Detail

Detail of Infant Jesus

This is another of those treasured possessions made by my mother in her student days, so, late 30s/40s and now very fragile, it fades every year even though I keep it out of the light. The thread has just disappeared in places, but her hand is very familiar, in the couching and split stitch used on the hands, very much in the medieval tradition, little scraps she had around, some of which I still have the remains of somewhere. I know this may have been more appropriate to post at Christmas but I am just giving you something lovely for now as I am off to school tomorrow, see here http://www.schoolforcreativestartups.com/

and not sure when I will get time over the next three days which is the first, rather scarily named "BOOT CAMP" which makes me visualise mud and being out of breath and feeling rather awkward in over sized and unflattering khaki ... and which I am hoping is in reality sitting in a lecture theatre and meeting some other entrepreneurs, and learning lots of new stuff about business. But stupidly worried about what to wear and whether my bag is big enough for the "quiet snacks" which are required for the day! Just hope I find a chum quickly ... oh!

Sweet Nostalgia ...

I have been sorting out books on the stairs bookcase and found this old copy of The Faber Book of Comic Verse though I am not sure of the publication date it is at least 1940's. It was a gift from my mother to my father just after the war, on his birthday 27th April 1947. There can't have been even an idea of my brother yet and still they were dreaming of their new life together and all it's possibilities ... My mother, the nurturing earth mother contentedly coping with 16 children all looking like my father with only one daughter! My father lounging around taking it easy smoking his pipe. All photos of him then had a pipe in mouth or hand. Some of the in jokes are forever lost, never to be explained sadly, like the sandwich tree, and the even more mysterious mitre plant ... and "PIP when 306" ?

It is a great treasure this little drawing and good to share with the outside world. Drawing in books? ABSOLUTELY!

Here they are on a picnic before I was born with my brother John and sister Naomi ....

and John and Naomi with my mother.

Stitch Cards

Now ... in advance of our latest range of products I am going to share with you some of my mother's teaching aids. She made these stitch cards to show different embroidery stitches, and how to embellish them further by weaving and stitching into them, and as stitching on counted punched holes makes for certain accuracy, it meant her pupils could not fail. She used thick cotton embroidery threads, in wonderful sixties hot colours. The pricks in the cards were made by a fabulous spiked wheeled tool which could inflict a nasty bite if it slipped. It was one of my jobs when a child to run the wheel along a pencil line on the cards, then she would come along with a special tool she made by ramming a wide eyed needle, eye first into a large rubber, and pushed it through the tiny hole made by the wheel , opening up ready to be stitched.

I had a lovely class in Hythe last week where I had some happy guinea pigs to try the cards! It is very satisfying stitching through cards ... a good noise and perfect stitching every time.

My own stitch cards will be available in a week or to and those of you who receive the Newsletter will be hearing of it via that also. But will post some more as soon as I can!

Golden Hands

I am going to share some of my archive of vintage crafts books, some of which date back to 1800s, though most are 1960s to present day. My first to share is a wonderful compilation book of material published by Marshall Cavendish Ltd in Golden Hands magazine. I found it in a charity shop a few years ago, and what drew me to it was the cover design, an embroidered waistcoat designed by my mother in 1972.  As I remember she did several designs for them but this was the most spectacular! I wonder if anyone made it? I remember her working the sample for the photograph very well. I also show another of my favourites which is so popular in style today!

Golden Hands Book 1972

Another design from Golden Hands Book

House and Garden 1951

Here is the article from 1951 House and Garden with my parents tiny flat in Kensington Gardens. My mother always used to say that it was actually very damp and dark and pokey, and to line it with asbestos! The hardboard flooring was constantly curling up and tripping you up ... but it looks so like the beginings of a style I came to know as 'home'. My father and uncle, Robert Nicholson both used to smoke heavily and my mother would say it was quite hard to breath let alone bring up my older brother John then a baby in this little flat. But still my father looks so handsome here, ... and some of the ornaments and pieces of furniture including the Ernest Race rocking chair I still know and love. The rocking chair was also another death trap as small squidgy fingers could be sliced off guillotine style under those rockers! Ah the pitfalls of modern living in the 1950s!