Needlework Development Scheme (NDS) was a collaborative program between industry and art education, that was to encourage and initiate a new standard for British embroidery design in both hand and machine work. The organisation was primarily responsible for developing collections of foreign and British embroidery, that could be loaned to training colleges,

Women's Institutes The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being th ...

, and schools. Started in 1934, the program was originally set up in Scotland by the four Scottish art schools,

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

under the name Needlework Development in Scotland Scheme. The project was a collaborative initiated between industry and art education, that was to encourage British embroidery design. The project was sponsored anonymously by thread producers J & P Coats. By 1945 the scheme had amassed over 900 embroideries but the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

saw the project disbanded. The Scheme was restated after the war, in 1944, and extended throughout the 1950s to include schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. British artists, including the painter and illustrator

Mary Kessell Mary Merlin Kessell (13 November 1914 – 1977)Les peintres Britannique dans les salons parisiens des origines a 1939, Béatrice Crespon-Halotier, Oliver Meslay, Echelle de Jacob, 2003, p. 308 was a British figurative painter, illustrator, des ...

were speciality commissioned to create experimental designs for the scheme which could then be reinterpreted in embroidery. The program ended in 1961, having achieved its original aims, and the collection of over 3,500 embroideries, was given to various museums and organisation, including the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London and the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

in Edinburgh.

References

Needlework Visual arts education Embroidery 1934 establishments in Scotland 1961 disestablishments 1934 in art Collections of National Museums Scotland Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum Edinburgh College of Art Glasgow School of Art {{UK-museum-stub