Amy Long at RugMark Rehabilitation Centre, Nepal; The Beat of the East moodboard
RugMark brought the winners of its annual Rug Design competition to 100% Design again this year. The winner, Amy Long, a Textile Design student from Loughborough University, created an abstract geometric pattern in graduated purple and blue tones. The competition sets out to inspire the creative talents of young designers and to raise awareness among design students of the child labour issues within the rug industry.
The 2010 competition brief is set to be announced next month and we will be posting it onto the ARTS THREAD competition section as soon as it arrives.
The competition brief was a commercial moodboard entitled The Beat of the East. The judges chose Amy’s design especially for her use of colour and unique block print detail. The judges included leading rug designer Deirdre Dyson, René Dekker, Head of the Residential Interiors at SHH, Paul Vowles of WovenGround and Kate Burnett, Editor of the interior design magazine idFX.
Amy Long, RugMark competition winner 2009
The second prize went to Crystal Holloway and third to Stacy Brafield, both studying at Manchester Metropolitan University. Crystal was a first year student at the time of the competition, and Stacy a second year student specialising in embroidery.
Crystal Holloway; Stacy Brafield, RugMark competition 2009
As competition winner, Amy’s rug design was hand-knotted in Kathmandu, Nepal. The rug is nine feet by six feet and took six weeks to make. During this period, Amy enjoyed a one week trip to Nepal, courtesy of Rugmark, to see her rug being created and to visit the community programmes RugMark runs in the region, including the RugMark Rehabilitation Centre, which is owned and run by RugMark for children rescued from working in the rug industry and children at risk. After the rug was completed and shown at 100% Design, it was given to Amy to keep.
RugMark International is a global, not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to end illegal child labour in the handmade rug industry across South Asia. It is currently replacing its RugMark kitemark of quality with a new GoodWeave labelling system. The GoodWeave labelling initiative operates through a network of licensed rug exporters and importers. All licensed exporters and importers are charged a licence fee for the use of the GoodWeave product labels, and the fees generated are used to fund the system of random inspections, and welfare, education and rehabilitation projects.
GoodWeave
Textiles: Loughborough University
Textiles: Manchester Metropolitan University
100% Design
