Nik Ravenscroft Embroidery

17/12/2025

A Christmas card from the Norwich Castle Museum... nice to see this clip again! https://youtu.be/EIrReTSi4UU

And yes, there will be kits! They've been approved and I'm getting set up (heaps of boxes, wool etc everywhere) for a launch (along with other tapestry-related stuff) some time in the New Year. Very exciting!

🧵7 years in the making and over 19 metres long, The Norwich Friends' Tapestry is an achievement of epic proportions. Installed in the Great Chamber in the K...

25/11/2025

Some photos from last week's talk... Thank you to Anne Guyon and Mim!

21/11/2025

Lovely afternoon yesterday with the Norfolk and Suffolk Weavers, spinners and dyers! A very welcoming group of people and some lovely pre-talk chat over a cup of tea (or two). They were also very gracious about my talk over-running, and I loved the fact that when I burbled happily about the minutiae of threads and wool and embroidering, there were nodding heads in the audience...
As the Tapestry project has gone on, the talk about it has grown. I have to do some pruning now that it has ended!

30/08/2025

The castle's evening celebration for the volunteers was a lot of fun - and I got to sit in the throne, too..😉

The whole thing is rather fine, with an excellent light show, a British Museum partnership gallery on medieval life and so much colour in the furnishings and the fittings. For the first time, you can go up to the top of the Keep and see out over Norwich. It's fully accessible, too, right to the top.

If you haven't visited yet, perhaps put this on your list of Places To See....

30/08/2025

That's weird - the post I put up has not appeared...

Well, it's done...It's finished!! After almost 8 years of work, a lot of stitches, a multitude of meetings and a lot of problems solved, the Norwich Friends' Tapestry is hanging in the newly refurbished castle keep!

We measured it when we finished 'snagging'; it is 64 feet, or 19.67 m long and weighs - quite a lot!

21/01/2025

Hurrah! The Norwich Castle have now surrendered and handed over their weapons... Only Emma handing over the key to do 😉

20/01/2025

Here's a lovely finished brooch from last week's workshop - and the embroiderer was kind enough to say "Thank you for a lovely and inspiring workshop and definitely one which doesn’t languish unfinished, a pleasure to complete, with excellent instructions and possible to finish within a comfortable time frame." Wow - and I didn't pay her anything, promise!

I love the way she has spaced the gold purl about the centre and the colour choices are beautiful...

18/01/2025

Almost a year to the day - another lovely workshop day in Beccles. They are such a lovely group of embroiderers: I wish I lived closer because I'd love to join their meetings!

17/01/2024

Just had a great day with the ladies of the Waveney Stitch group in Beccles - what a lovely lot they are! We did goldwork mediaeval illuminated capitals and everyone worked really hard. It's a lot to do in a day and it was very impressive how far people managed to get. I'm looking forward to seeing the results when they are completed...☺️

12/09/2023

Had a brilliant day last Saturday (2nd September) in Sandwich at the Medieval Centre learning to do fingerloop braiding with Sue the Silkwoman...(The Silkewoman at Medieval Needle) A really kind and effective teacher, who ensured that I got a lot better at making braids. She got me doing braids I never would have dared to do from a book - and having a real physical tutor is so useful, especially when it comes to ironing out problems. I was the only one on the course, which is a real missed opportunity, but she didn't cancel and I had a great day.

20/02/2023

Breathtakingly beautiful... I admire immensely anyone who can embroider like this!