An enormous curiosity about textiles led Karen Finch, who died this year aged 96, on an unusual life journey as a weaver, textile conservator and educator. Born the eldest daughter in a Danish farming family, her presumed fate was marriage, bringing with it land and children, but she was determined…

Mr. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, There is a moment in all our lives when the door opens and lets the future in. For Karen Finch that moment probably came when, as a young girl in Denmark, she stood in the Village church entranced by the embroideries and carvings of a former age,…

November 3rd 1976 was an investiture day for some of those honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. The weather was bright and sunny but it was rather cold. We had been told to be at Buckingham Palace by 10am and Norman had decided to avail himself of the car-parking…

The retirement of Karen Finch as Principal of the Textile Conservation Centre is a good moment to reflect on her achievement. Her innate talents, fostered by her training in Copenhagen, by her work at the Royal School of Needlework and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and then running her own…

Karen Finch founded the Centre in 1975. Her early training in textile design and conservation at Kunsthåndværkerskolen, Copenhagen, her work with the Royal School of Needlework, and later, from 1954 to 1959, in the Textile Conservation Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, developed her all absorbing, lifelong interest in…

Part One: Karen Finch – A Tribute Karen was born and raised in Denmark and she has often written and spoken about her early awareness of history through carvings and needlework in the local parish church. Her long-term interest in textile techniques began through her embroidery and needlework experience, gained…

Karen Finch, a long time member of our guild has been honoured by the University of Southampton by being awarded an honorary doctorate for her life’s work in founding and setting up the Textile Conservation Centre. Karen has been involved with textiles all her working life, first in her native…