Prize for Embroidery 2019
Image: Alex Standring, The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers Award Winner 2018, photo credit, Tas Kypianou.
In November, work shortlisted for the Hand & Lock Prize for embroidery will be on show in London. The two-day exhibition will feature the best embroidery from around the world and marks the final judging stage of the annual Prize, a unique global competition created to highlight and promote the work of emerging embroidery artisans. The shortlisted artists will not be announced until the show itself.
Those attending will have the chance to vote on their favourite of the 24 artworks and garments, helping to crown the overall winners. The Prize exhibition and Prizegiving mark the point when the finalists, who come from the USA, Spain, Canada, Israel, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK, compete face to face for a share of the $26,000 prize fund.
Image: Shlomit Tawfik, Hand Embroidery - Textile Art - Open Category 2nd Place 2018, photo credit, Jutta Klee.
The 2019 design brief called for embroiderers to ‘Fool the senses’ and for designers to consider every surface and texture as inspiration: concrete walls, woven rugs, cold steel, fake fur, old leather, fine crystal, rich velvet and coarse hessian. Their final designs should confuse and delight the senses.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, an awards ceremony is held with the four top embroiderers being awarded $4000 each. Previous Prize winners have gone on to establish their own businesses or work for some of the biggest names in the fashion and textile industries.
Image: Helena Allan, The London and South East England Section of the Textile Institute Award Winner 2018, photo credit, Jutta Klee.
The winners in 2018 included Maud Thomas (1st Place, Hand Embroidery Fashion), Silvia Perramon Rubio (1st Place, Hand Embroidery Textile Art) and Amelia Taylor (Winner Fashion Category – Digital Embroidery) and Jessie Dickinson (Winner Textile Art Category – Digital Embroidery).
The exhibition will take place at The Historic Bishopsgate Institute, London, in November. Selvedge’s founder, Polly Leonard, is part of the judging panel for the Prize. For details and tickets visit www.handembroidery.com.