Heart of Embroidery

We are Nicola Jarvis and Sarah Homfray, and together we teach embroidery in the Heart of England.

We both hail from Rugby and are both graduates of the Royal School of Needlework three year apprenticeship. We are both published authors, having written specialist books on our embroidery art and we were both part of the Royal School of Needlework team that created the lacework on Catherine Middleton's wedding dress! Between us we have 20 years of experience in the business and It is fantastic to be combining our skills and coming together to teach something we love in the place where we grew up.

We will be teaching an exciting range of classes and hope to also offer visits to venues of interest to embroiderers, within the Heart of England (we may be able to get you where others can't so watch this space!). We will also be teaching the Royal School of Needlework certificated course in Rugby on behalf of the RSN (see dedicated page), so why not join us and get a professional qualification in your passion? Check out our classes page to see what we will be up to and come and join us on a creative adventure!

More about Sarah...

Sarah was born in Coventry and grew up in the picturesque village of Wolston. She went to Ashlawn School in Hillmorton, Rugby before moving to Warwick to complete an engineering apprenticeship at Pottertons. From there she took a sabatical and left both the job and her home to travel around Africa and Asia in an old army truck!

After running out of money in Kathmandu, she returned home. There were a few more careers changes and travel adventrues (the latter of which started her interest in all things textile) before Sarah decided she wanted to learn the techniques behind the beautiful embroideries she had seen on her travels. She was awarded a place on the Royal School of Needlework 3 year apprenticeship in 2003. While there, Sarah won the Hilda Watson prize for silk shading, and the Gold and silver wire drawers prize for her goldwork. In 2009 she was a runner up in the Bridging Arts British Sari story comeptiion.

She has qualifications in Botanical Art, Art and Design and a Post Compulsory Certificate in Education from the University of Greenwhich. Her book, 'The RSN Essential Stitch Guide to Silk Shading' was released in June this year (see below).

Sarah lives with her husband, enjoys searching for her ancestors and is learning to play the guitar.

More about Nikki...

Nikki was born in Rugby and attended Rugby High School for Girls. She then went on to gain a diploma of Higher Education in Visual studies at Oxford Polytechnic.

She completed the RSN Apprenticeship in 1994 and then ran a freelance business making embellishments for the British fashion industry. During this time she also gained a Certificate of Education from Greenwich University. Nicola is also a member of the Textile Society Committee. Nicola completed a Masters in Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art in 2009 after graduating with a first class Honours Degree in Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University.
 
Nicola’s designs for Tracy A Franklin’s New Ideas in Goldwork led to their collaboration on Contemporary Whitework (see below). Nicola also executed diagrams and illustrations for Embroidered Knot Gardens Anova Books best seller written by Owen Davies and Gill Holdsworth. She has recently contributed her unique “Stitch Drawings” to Tracy A Franklin’s new Crewel Work publication and to the RSN’s Essential Stitch Guide – Blackwork by Becky Hogg published by Search Press

Nicola's other passion is her art in which she makes autobiographical drawings and prints that are intensely intricate, rooted in English embroidery and decoration. She has been drawing all her life and describes her particular style as ‘stitching with the pencil’.
 

Contemporary Whitework
By Tracy A Franklin and Nicola Jarvis

Published by Batsford

RSN Essential Stitch Guide to Silk Shading
By Sarah Homfray

Published by Search Press

All text and images copyright of Heart of Embroidery 2011