It’s great to see Alice Kettle’s new work ‘The garden of England’ is now installed at the Queen’s House at the National Maritime Museum. It includes two of her beautiful embroideries: a portrait of Henrietta Maria, queen to Charles I, and ‘Flower bed’, an embroidered floral carpet, as well as ‘Flower helix’ a cascade of flowers hanging down the central spiral of the Tulip stairs referencing Queen Anne’s lace. Alice is a celebrated embroiderer but had only a rudimentary knowledge of lace so she approached me and Gail Baxter to advise her on types of lace and what would give the effect she wanted. We spent several days with Alice, originally poring over lace books, floral images and a portrait of Anne of Denmark, queen to James I, helping to work out what would be possible in the time available. Alice decided that to provide the profusion of lace she wanted she would need more help to supplement her own flowers. She sent out a call on facebook for volunteers to produce small round floral pieces resembling the flowers of Queen Anne’s lace (the country name for cow parsley) from a pack of threads she provided and was inundated with beautiful pieces.
Gail and I spent several days helping Alice assemble the pieces; the image above shows some of the flowers, wire and tools on our worktable. It was a great privilege to work with Alice on such an interesting project and fascinating to see the work grow and develop. The opening of the exhibition was celebrated with a display of Alice’s work at the Knitting and Stitching Show last Friday and the exhibition runs at the National Maritime Museum until 18 August. I’m looking forward to seeing it in situ.
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