We have the pleasure of announcing that we have three amazing judges for the upcoming button challenge.  Let’s make sure that we all get making buttons so they have lots to choose from!    

The judges are:

Rachael Howard – Senior lecturer in textile design at Bath Spa University. 

Rachael is a highly respected and successful practicing textile artist and designer who graduated from the Royal College of Art, as one of its first MA Embroidery students. She has worked as a designer and illustrator for many companies including Paul Smith, Habitat and Liberty and has developed her own collections of fashion and interior accessories.

Rachael regularly exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Her first solo show with the Ruthin Craft Centre was “phenomenally successful” and toured nationally for 2 years attracting 32,500 visitors at its final destination, the Museum of Home in  London. She has pioneered a lively mix of embroidery and screen-printing techniques, using image, text and object to tell often autobiographical stories of the everyday.  Her public art commissions include a wall-hanging for the Museum of Science and Industry in Berlin; wayfinding designs and working with patients in a youth cancer care centre in Liverpool to create artworks for their recreation room.

Katy Bevan –Publisher Quickthornbooks

Katy Bevan is an independent curator, writer and educator specialising in craft. She runs her own publishing company www.quickthornbooks.com.   She has worked in craft book and magazine publishing for over thirty years including working for Ceramic Review, Selvedge and Rowan.  She has a particular interest in the connective nature of craft in communities and the relationship between craft and wellbeing.

Katy was previously Learning and Participation Manager at the Crafts Council where she was responsible for the Firing Up and Craft Club initiatives. She blogs at The Crafter, is a trustee of Heritage Crafts and is usually to be found knitting.  One of her many claims to fame is that she helped break the world record for the number of people knitting simultaneously at the Albert Hall AGM of the Women’s Institute.

Carmen Schmidt – Owner of A Yarn Story

Carmen opened A Yarn Story in the small village of Bathford in 2014. But, after six short months, she found she had outgrown her little shop and moved to Walcot Street in the heart of Bath’s Artisan Quarter. The shop sells yarns, patterns, knick-knacks and buttons!  Every single thing in the shop has a tale to tell that can be passed on so others can make it a part of their story too. She is passionate about choosing her favourite fibres and colours, as well as supporting designers and makers far and wide.