Bristol Cloth have launched an open competition to design a Tweed for Bristol. The cloth will be a 100% wool fabric of classic heritage-inspired design, prioritising locally sourced materials and manufacturing processes from the South West of the UK.
Design Brief
What does Bristol’s social fabric look like?
What kind of cloth does Bristol need?
How would you weave Bristol?
What woven designs were traditionally borne out of the South West?
The winning Bristol Cloth design will encapsulate the  very diverse city, while also referencing traditional woven design. Participants will choose their own starting point from which to explore a design theme and follow Bristol Cloth’s Instagram for inspiration.
The Bristol Cloth will be broadly and commercially appealing to local designer-makers, local brands and retailers as well as the general public with end use being for accessories, outerwear and/or interiors.
Colour palette
The colour palette will change year on year according to the natural colours of fleece they source and the dyes obtained from surrounding flora. For 2015 these are the colours for the competition
Cloth Construction
Shafts: 16 shaft dobby weave construction
Ends per inch: 12 Picks per inch: variable depending on weight and handle you wish to achieve.
Yarn composition: 100% Shetland wool warp and weft
Yarn Count: 2/14 NM
N.B. Unfortunately Bristol Cloth are not able to provide yarn for competition entries. Please make sure to use yarn of the same count and of similar colours to their palette (above).
Finishing
The woven cloth needs to be washed, woven and pressed, which Bristol Cloth have found to create a beautiful handle with the Shetland yarn.
How to Enter:
* 1 design per entrant
* entrants must have a postcode from the South West (i.e. Bath/Bristol/Avon/Somerset/Gloucestershire/Wiltshire/Dorset/Devon/Cornwall)
* Designs should be submitted with any relevant supporting work presented on no more than 3 A3 boards.
* Entrants do not need to weave a sample (unless they want to) only create a CAD artwork of their design in JPEG format.
* Any relevant technical notes should be submitted separately in A4 format.
Please send you entry, along with:
your NAME, ADDRESS, CONTACT DETAILS
and a SHORT PARAGRAPH about yourself, the inspiration behind your design and what end use you have designed it for
to
Bristol Textile Quarter Ground Floor, 1A Barton Road Bristol BS2 0LF
by
Closing date: Monday August 31st 12:00
Winning Entries:
Will be shortlisted by Bristol Cloth partners by September 2nd and exhibited in the Bristol Green Capital Lab space on Bristol’s Harbourside. Throughout September the public will be able to nominate their favourite, contributing 25% of the final vote.
The winning design will be chosen by a panel comprising representatives from the Bristol Cloth partner organisations and other local arts and creative industry institutions and businesses and the winner will receive a 5m length of the finished cloth in a prize-giving ceremony in the Green Capital Lab on the eve of October 28th.
Terms & Conditions
The winning design will be open to interpretation by The Bristol Weaving Mill to ensure successful translation to production.
Copyright of the design will be transferred to The Bristol Weaving Mill
Contact: hello@bristolcloth.co.uk
Images/text: Bristol Cloth
The 2015 competition was won by Wendy Kotenko from Cornwall and Rebecca Connolly from Cirencester, Gloucestershire the runner up award.