In November, following winning the Hand & Lock Prize for Textile Art, 2024, I was honoured to be invited as a Guest Tutor at the prestigious Hand & Lock School, London. The Hand & Lock Prize is held every year to celebrate excellence in embroidery: hand, machine and digital. Winning has been career changing and has led to some exciting opportunities.

My winning artwork, It Had to Be So, 2024 was a large free machine embroidered drawing commenting on how the body keeps the score following loss through suicide. The foundations of the making was based on two years of research conducted during my RCA MA in Textiles.

Left, winning artwork ‘It Had to Be So’, 2024 and right, receiving my prize from Hand & Lock Chairman, Alistair Macleod

Teaching at Hand & Lock was an exciting prospect. Hand & Lock is a world-renowned Embroidery Atelier specialising in designs for leading fashion houses, royalty and the film industry. Founded in 1767, it brings 250 years of experience in embroidery, embellishment and monogramming to each class, with students travelling across the world to attend. One of my students had come from New York.

Planning the workshop

When I am running my usual workshops in Bristol (and other venues), attendees normally bring their own sewing machine. However, Hand & Lock pride themselves on providing all the materials necessary for their courses and this meant finding somewhere to hire 12 sewing machines. Hand & Lock were unable to help after previous experience of trying to hire machines.

After exploring various options that were to prove unworkable, I contacted Bernina UK to see if they could help. Explaining the backbones of my practice and the unique location of the classes, Bernina UK generously offered to supply 12 of their brand-new B335 sewing machines. The wonderful Hand & Lock team took delivery of the machines and helped to set them all up. It really was quite a feat – the studio was up a flight of stairs and each one had to be unwrapped and prepared for the two-day class.

Day one

On day one, the class was introduced to the art of free machine embroidery. Following a short explanation of my practice, we set up the Bernina sewing machines and hooped up the water-soluble fabric. With a class where some had a little knowledge of free machine embroidery, and others were new to the art, we set about practising how to make the small, interlocking circular stitches that form the structure of the process. Once the stitch was understood, the class were shown how to work in a painterly way. First, we compared stitching with loose and dense application of stitches, then altered tensions so that more or less of the bottom thread was shown and finally worked in different coloured layers so that we could see the magic of blending happen.

Students practising the exploratory process

With the first day complete, I asked everyone to consider a small design that could be made the following day. With advice to keep it simple and max 10cm square, we all headed home for an evening of rest.

Day Two

With some small designs chosen, the class were shown how to transfer their chosen image onto water-soluble fabric. The day’s stitching would depend on individuals needs, allowing everyone to create their own image at their own pace whilst technical questions were answered. As the sewing machines gently purred, there was an air of concentration peppered by creative conversations and laughter.

The images made were varied. Some students had ideas and questions that they wanted to explore relating to their own practice whilst others simply wanted to understand the basics of the process so that they could make a small, complete drawing.

Busy studio class with students working on realising their images

Conclusion and thanks

Teaching at the Hand & Lock Studio was an enriching experience. I am always so grateful when people ask me to teach and the wonderful generosity of students who use their valuable time to attend. There were many stimulating conversations and moments of joy as the process was understood and the designs developed.

I would like to thank the fabulous Hand & Lock team for their help in planning, setting up and supporting the workshop. The endless cups of tea and biscuits made ready for us all to enjoy. And finally, I would like to thank the Bernina UK for the loan of the Bernina’s new 335 sewing machine. With the dog feed lowered, the small domestic sewing machine was the perfect fit for the class.

I hope my students continue to experiment with the techniques explored in the class and use them as their individual projects, and practice, develop and grow.

If you would like to learn more about free machine embroidery, I will be teaching at West Dean, Chichester, in March 2026. To see more of my work, follow me on Instagram @julieheatonartist.

Julie Heaton