As told in pattern on cloth by winning GREEN GRADS. Sponsored by Epson @epsonUK; printed by Prinfab @prinfab
Concept: Barbara Chandler, @sunnygran. Project Director: Debbie McKeegan, @texintel
GREEN GRADS challenged Art Schools across the UK to design patterns that reflect their environmental concerns and/or love of the natural world. And to consider eco-friendly textiles, dyes, and methods of production. “Once a GREEN GRAD always a GREEN GRAD! Our planet profits from their passion for environmental reform.” Debbie McKeegan, ECO STORIES project director.
Winner, Gold Award: Sarah Thorley, BA Surface Pattern & Textile Design, Bolton School of Art 2022; for The Bateman Collection; @colours_by_sarah
Winner, Silver Award: Rhiannon Weaver, BA Textile Design, De Montfort University, 2022; for Silken Bloom; @rhiannoneleanortextiles
Winner, Bronze Award: Rebekah Longland, Textile & Design, Birmingham City University, 2022; for Home Grown; @rebekah.longland
ECO STORIES: THE COLLECTIONS 2021 REWILD by Connie Brownjohn tells the story of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, featuring animals reintroduced into this famously rewilded landscape, contrasted with more ordered patterns from adjacent industrialised agriculture.
LOST IN YESTERDAY presents intricate drawings of animals and plants – all of them endangered species – by designer-activist Katherine Toms.
2022 HOME GROWN by Rebekah Longland highlights the joy of growing your own food in garden or allotment in contrast to factory farming and industrialised food production. Her vibrant designs, which started as collaged motifs, are digitally printed using eco-friendly colours and papers.
THE BATEMAN COLLECTION, inspired by the Victorian National Trust treasure, Biddulph Grange Gardens, laid out by James Bateman in 1840, exudes designer Sarah Thorley’s passion for nature, conservation, restoration, and history, expressed in florals, foliage, architecture, birds, and nature.
