Vain Jackdaw by Walter Crane in Couture Embroidery

Discover the Royal School of Needlework Archive through this eight-week Couture Embroidery course, inspired by Walter Crane’s The Vain Jackdaw.

Created in 1875, The Vain Jackdaw was the earliest design produced by Walter Crane for the Royal School of Needlework. Designed as a four-panel screen, it tells the story of one of Aesop’s fables in which a jackdaw, wishing to be like the peacocks in the King’s garden, creates himself a new tail from their discarded feathers. The design features peacocks, peahens, pomegranate trees and decorative foliage and is a wonderful example of the rich natural imagery associated with the Aesthetic Movement. A screen worked to Crane’s design was displayed at the 1876 Philadelphia International Centennial Exhibition and the original designs remain in the RSN Collection today.

Over eight weeks, you will take inspiration from Crane’s beautiful peacock motifs and reimagine them through contemporary Couture Embroidery. Working with our expert RSN Tutors, you will begin by learning how to prepare your fabric and accurately transfer your design, giving you the foundations needed to begin your embroidery. You will learn how to appliqué fabric onto an organza ground before gradually building colour, texture and detail through a range of hand embroidery and couture embellishment techniques.

You will explore contemporary goldwork and learn how different materials can be used to add texture and light to your work. Using fine silk threads, you will also learn Silk Shading techniques to create a seamless blend of colour across the body of the bird.

Throughout the course, your tutor will introduce professional couture starting and finishing techniques, including how to work without knots to create a beautifully finished piece on both the front and back.

Suitable for a range of abilities, this course gives you the opportunity to spend eight weeks developing your skills while creating a contemporary piece of embroidery inspired by more than 150 years of RSN history. Whether you choose to stitch this as an individual piece or explore all three designs within our Walter Crane-inspired collection, this course offers the opportunity to discover an important part of the RSN Archive while developing a beautiful combination of traditional and contemporary hand embroidery techniques.

Discover the original inspiration behind this course. The Vain Jackdaw by Walter Crane is part of the Royal School of Needlework Collection & Archive and is now available to explore online. View the original work in more detail, discover its history and take a closer look at this remarkable piece from the RSN Collection.

View The Vain Jackdaw on the Royal School of Needlework Collection & Archive: https://collections.royal-needlework.org.uk/d6.21.a-d