Hand and Lock Prize 2014

1. Meta Mckinney, 2. Myra Chung, 3. Justine Bonefant, 4. Justina Moncevicute, 5. Krista Terauda, 6. Maria Alina Hera, 7. Julia Titchfield, 8. Eranga Bandaranyake, 9. Ana Maria Restrepo, 10. Umme Salma, 11. Katrina Viper, 12. Wan Hung Cheung

Feeling Stitchy was very kindly invited to the Hand and Lock 2014 Prize Giving at the historic Bishopgate Institute in London, UK. Hand and Lock is a fusion of two embroidery companies dating back to 1767. M Hand was a Hugenot refugee, who added embroidery to his range of laces and his company M Hand and Co continued for the next two centuries, creating beautiful embroidery for the military, royalty and tailors, throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. Whereas S Lock started life in 1898 as CE Phipps and Co, an embroidery business that supported London's growing couture houses. In 1956, the designer Stanley Lock took over from Mr. Phipps on his retirement and the company was renamed S Lock Ltd. For the next 45 years the company worked on commissions with couturiers including Christian Dior, Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies. S Lock Ltd was awarded a Royal Warrant and they made gowns for both the Queen and the Queen Mother, as well as the wedding ensemble for Princess Anne. Princess Diana was also a big fan. Their embroidery also hit the stage, working on productions from Barnum to The Lion King. In 2001 M Hand and S Lock merged to form Hand and Lock.

So, as you can imagine, a competition run by such a prestigious embroidery company would have high standards, so it was an exciting opportunity to see the finalists work in person. The embroidery and attention to detail in the pieces was exquisite. It was great to see hand embroidery used in such innovative ways.

There were two categories, student and open and we were all given voting cards to choose which from the two categories we liked best and the audience's votes were combined with the judges votes before the prize giving ceremony itself. The winner of the student prize was Myra Chung (2nd from top left in the mosaic above) and the winner of the open prize was Julia Titchfield (middle row, 2nd from the right). Well done to the winners and to all the finalists, the standard was amazing and a massive inspiration.

The Hand and Lock Prize is an annual event, you can read the design brief for next year's competition here and read how to enter here, who's tempted to give it a go?