Join us for our Christmas Event and bring along items that you have made for us to admire.

In addition there are a few prizes to win.  These are as follows:

Christmas Competitions 2024
The following subjects have been set for our awards 2024:
The Kennedy Cup for Spinning: ‘The Year of the Camelids’
As the UN has designated 2024 as The Year of the Camelids, spinners are invited to create a spinning project using fibre from, alpacas, lamas, camel… or any other camelid animal. You can use fleece you have processed yourself, commercial fibre (top) alone or as a blend – you will need to show notes of your method and research and spun yarn with a finished project or the notes for completion.

The Tapestry Prize: ‘A Picture from your Holiday in 2023 or an Image of 2023’
Choose a picture from your holiday in 2023 or an image of 2023 you would like to weave. A photograph stating where the picture is from with drawings or sketches to accompany the finished tapestry. Use a couple of tapestry techniques to enhance your weaving.

Lore Youngmark Memorial Competition 2024: Colour Gradients
For the Lore Youngmark competition 2024, colleagues are invited to explore colour gradients in weaving. This might be a woven item using a yarn that you have dyed to produce a gradient. It could be two or more different colour yarns from your stash where you plan a warp or a weft sequence which gradually transitions from one colour to another. Or an ombré weave where yarns of different colour value (light and dark) are blended to shade from one value to another. A form of strié weave
could be used where several colours are subtly blended to produce colour mixes that transition from one dominant hue to another. The colour gradient might run horizontally in the weft or vertically in the warp, or even be checkered. You might use a plain weave or patterned weave. Entrants should present a finished article that has been woven on a shaft loom (two shafts or more), accompanied by
written notes about your yarns, sett and weave structure, and any other information on how you produced your item.

Gwen Shaw Cup 2024: Inspired by the Bauhaus
This competition is specifically for design so it welcomes entries from any of our disciplines: weaving (both loom weaving and tapestry), spinning and dyeing. The theme this year is ‘Inspired by the Bauhaus’. This influential art movement officially ran from 1919 to 1933 in Germany covered a range of art and technological disciplines and included many well known names –Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef and Anni Albers… Weavers, spinners and dyers might be inspired by any of the Bauhaus work, not just its textile output. Your entry for this competition is to
be a completed item of your choice (i.e. not just a sample) and it must include evidence of the design process.