The annual Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery celebrates emerging embroidery talent from all over the world.

The 2022 design brief asked embroiderers to take inspiration from the power of nature, evolution, adaptation, biomimicry, texture, colour, craft and sustainable practices. The Prize for Embroidery has awards for Fashion and Textile Arts, and these two categories are further divided into Student and Open sub-categories.

This year, three 2022 RSN Degree Graduates and one 2022 Future Tutors Graduate are finalists, having submitted their Final Major Projects for the competition: Eliza Gomersall and Sally Randle are finalists in the Textile Art Student category, and Sabina de Oliveira Lima and Linnea Lyndon are finalists in the Fashion Student category.

Eliza Gommersall

Eliza is based in a rural village in the southeast of England. Inspired by British insects, lepidoptera, flora, fauna, rocks and minerals, Eliza uses hand embroidery to bring nature to a new light. Eliza is cautious and meticulous about the materials she uses, keeping in mind the environmental, social, and economic factors of fashion and textile production. She uses natural, vintage, and second-hand materials wherever possible in her practice.

Eliza’s Final Major Project, ‘Palingenesis’ (Rebirth) explored the ideas of ‘transformation’ in nature and of material. Eliza produced a hand embroidered fantastical 3D moth adornment using a variety of techniques including Canvaswork, Silk Shading, Goldwork, Pulled Work, Raised Work and beading to create texture and interest.

Alongside beading and unique embellishments, such as second-hand clock parts, Eliza has incorporated botanical motifs into the wings, which represent the life cycle of a rose and an apple tree. We love how the texture created by the Canvaswork technique successfully mimics the texture on the surface of moth wings!

You can follow Eliza on Instagram here. 

Sabina de Oliveira Lima

Sabina is an award winning and London-based freelance embroidery artist with a background in architecture. Her Final Major Project, ‘Viva São João’, was inspired by the spectacular bonfire at Festa Junina in Brazil.

The embellishment of Sabina’s bonfire was made using the couture hand embroidery technique of Goldwork in a contemporary manner. Other traditional and experimental techniques were also applied, such as Crewelwork, Raised Work and 3D Beading to add texture.

You can follow Sabina on Instagram here.

Linnea Lyndon

Linnea is already establishing a career beyond her university accomplishments, most recently being part of the Alexander McQueen embroidery team for the Autumn Winter 2022 collection in New York.

‘Memorylands’ is a couture ensemble exploring the artist’s childhood memories at the beginning of her artistic journey. Exploring the subconscious influences behind her creative practice, Linnea uses a variety of hand processes to celebrate the nostalgia associated with making by hand, and the connections between her past and present.

In its materiality and design, this ensemble is very much typical for Haute Couture design. The emotive engagement of the embroidery design is intended to familiarize the feeling of Couture and communicate a feeling of collective memory to the audience.

You can follow Linnea on Instagram here.

Sally Randle

Sally moved 16,500KMs from her hometown of Brisbane, Australia, in 2019 to pursue her love of hand embroidery. She graduated from our Future Tutors Programme earlier this year and has already created a beautiful Christmas Tree design which she will teach at the RSN this December.

Her Hand & Lock submission is called ‘Environmental Change / Changing Environments’ and is a multi-layered hand embroidery made from semi-transparent panels of fine tulle, presented in a tunnel book format.

The individual embroidered layers of this interactive embroidery can be reordered and added or subtracted. One configuration shows my personal story of changing environments, with each layer allowing the viewer to be transported between a parched Australian desert and a verdant English landscape. Another configuration incorporates light and air to show the devastating impact of wildfire on the natural environment of a forest.

You can follow Sally on Instagram here.

All finalist designers have spent the last few months working alongside their industry mentors, perfecting their final submissions.  We congratulate our students on being finalists and wish them the best of luck!