Members Challenge 2024/2025: Colour Rhythms

Featured: Overall Winner: Constance Howard award for most outstanding entry, Winner: Valerie Campbell-Harding Award for best machine stitching

Alyssa Robinson ‘A VERY BRITISH OBSESSION’’

Colour Rhythms

The Members’ Challenge for this year was a little wider and less specific. We asked members to dig deep and initially look at the ways famous artists and designers have investigated the broad themes of ‘Colour’ and ‘Rhythm.’ During that exploratory journey they would find that many of their outcomes are informed by an in-depth study of nature and the world around them. Although areas of ‘Colour’ and ‘Rhythms’ have characteristics and rules of their own, the two themes together can inspire new ideas and ways of looking.

We said:

Look at the work of Sonia Delaunay, Andy Warhol, Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Claude Monet, Pierre Mondrian, Vincent Van Gogh, Renee Magritte and Pablo Picasso etc.

The world of colour effects all of us for a myriad of reasons:

  • Hot colours make us feel warm, happy, angry.
  • Cold colours make us feel cold, depressed, calm.
  • Primary, secondary, complementary, shades and tints and colours with high chromatic value all provide us with different ways of informing our audience.
  • Colours with texture, transparency and shine add that extra nuance.

This year also saw the introduction of our new Award: The Janome Award for the Inspired use of machine embroidery stitches

Deborah Shepherd, Creative Director of JANOME, joined our panel of Judges​.

JANOME are often asked by their customers “Why would I need all of those stitches.” Deborah loves to think JANOME machines have inspired some creative use of these stitches and hopes to inspire others to experiment and be bold!​

“For the Janome category we wanted to encourage the use of all types of machine embroidery stitches and therefore the JANOME award is focused a little differently from the Val Campbell-Harding Award for best machine stitching”.​

For more about JANOME please have a look at www.janome.co.uk

Find all the entries in our eBook: