Deborah came to embroidery after working in mapping, planning and surveying, and for the last 15 years she has been immersed in teaching and practicing needlework skills. She worked for Spinning Weal in her home town as an in-store tutor while training, and now teaches at the Royal School of Needlework. In 2015, Deborah founded her own business, Stitch & Co., providing teaching, conservation and restoration services and producing new hand embroidery by commission. She believes that the reputation of her craft is too simplistic, and she wants to promote its status as a “traditional art form that deserves its place in galleries.”
Deborah’s QEST Scholarship will fund her part time MPhil at The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, where her research topic will be the use of geometric principles in historic embroidery design and how this method can be used to create new work. She will develop her working practice and showcase her embroidery in new, influential networks and valuable markets.