A Quarter-Century of Craft: Melinda Piesse Tops the Hand & Lock Awards
Marking twenty-five years of championing embroidery’s most exciting emerging voices, the 2025 Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery returned to London with characteristic flair. Over 120 guests gathered on 4 November at Gallery Rosenfeld, Fitzrovia, for an evening celebrating innovation in stitch in a fitting tribute to the world’s longest-running embroidery atelier and its continued commitment to craft. Across four categories, this year’s winners ranged from student designers to established textile artists, with Charlotte Farrant, Severina Seidl, Ilaria Harris and others recognised for their outstanding work.
But it was Australian textile artist Melinda Piesse, winner of First Prize in the Open Textile Art category, who captivated both judges and visitors with a work that feels as monumental in ambition as in scale: The Batavia Tapestry.
The Batavia Tapestry, Melinda Piesse
Piesse’s embroidered sailcloth — a three-by-five-metre linen canvas — revisits the tragic 1629 wreck of the Dutch East India Company flagship Batavia, a story marked by shipwreck, mutiny, mass murder, and an eventual, improbable rescue. While the narrative itself has long fascinated maritime historians, Piesse’s interpretation brings a distinctive sensitivity to the material culture of survival. Her tapestry integrates appliqué, crewelwork, goldwork and hand-dyed wool felt, drawing on years of research that included archaeological journals, maritime archives and studies of 17th-century rigging and sail-making.
Detail from The Batavia Tapestry, Melinda Piesse
The limited palette of olive, indigo, cochineal red, gold and madder nods to the Bayeux Tapestry, and like its medieval predecessor, The Batavia Tapestry compresses sweeping human drama into finely stitched vignettes: passengers scrambling to shore; the mutineers, adorned in stolen silks and braids, “dressed to kill”; the officers’ desperate departure in the longboat; and the fierce battle that accompanied the rescue ship’s return.
Details from The Batavia Tapestry, Melinda Piesse. Photo: @domi_rad
Textiles play an uncanny dual role in this story, a detail Piesse emphasises. On the islands where survivors were marooned, cloth was shelter, shade and currency; simultaneously, clothing became a symbol of power, manipulated by the mutineers to establish hierarchy. Piesse’s decision to work on sailcloth — finished with tarred marline and hemp rope, and mounted on a spar built by master shipwright Wayne Parr — underscores the brutal practicality of the materials at the heart of the narrative.
Details from The Batavia Tapestry, Melinda Piesse. Photo: @domi_rad
Chosen from more than 500 international entries, Piesse’s win reflects the Prize’s dedication to technical mastery, originality and depth of vision. As the exhibition at Gallery Rosenfeld drew hundreds across its three-day run, The Batavia Tapestry stood out as a reminder of what embroidery can achieve when history, craftsmanship and imagination converge.
A huge congratulations to Melinda Piesse, and as this milestone year for the Prize draws to a close, Selvedge also celebrates the remarkable creativity shown across all categories. Our warmest congratulations to every winner and finalist whose dedication to stitch continues to push the craft forward.
2025 Hand & Lock Prize Winners
Student Fashion Category
• 1st — Charlotte Farrant
• 2nd — Madelaine Rose Walker
• 3rd — Clara Donald
Student Textile Art Category
• 1st — Severina Seidl
• 2nd — Lucy May
• 3rd — Rowan Shepherd
Open Fashion Category
• 1st — Ilaria Harris
• 2nd — Yume Ueno
• 3rd — Yanis Miltgen
Open Textile Art Category
• 1st — Melinda Piesse
• 2nd — Erica Kirsop
• 3rd — Anne Waller
Congratulations to all.
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Further information:
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Image Credits:
Lead: Detail from The Batavia Tapestry by Melinda Piesse
All further images as credited in photo captions.