Scotland’s first craft awards are coming to Dundee to showcase the best talent coming out of art schools and a local graduate is among the finalists.
They will act as a celebration of new and innovative work being produced by graduates of Scotland’s art and design schools.
Hosted by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) for its first year, future events will see the awards tour Scotland’s other art schools.
Key players from Scotland’s crafts industry will gather in the city for the inaugural Inches Carr Scottish Craft Awards on Wednesday, at the Apex Hotel.
Jewellery maker and DJCAD graduate Sayoko Kobayashi is one of the 10 finalists chosen for her unique designs which make use of precious metals, base metals, wood, resin, vitreous enamels and plant seeds.
Frances Stevenson, programme leader for DJCAD’s design and jewellery courses, said: “This is a national competition for which very few graduates have been shortlisted so we are really pleased that Sayoko has been chosen as a finalist.
“She’s a really talented jeweller whose work really does have a timeless beauty.
“Her work is in the DCA and galleries across the country.”
Robin Blair, chairman of the Inches Carr Trust, said: “We hope that these new awards will be an encouragement to the many marvellously creative graduates who come out of the Scottish art and design colleges.”
Graduates of Scotland’s five internationally renowned art and design institutions Duncan of Jordanstone, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Gray’s School of Art and Heriot Watt University School of Textiles and Design were invited to apply.
Sayoko will compete with other finalists from across the disciplines of silversmithing, textile design, enamelling, glassblowing and jewellery design.
The other finalists are Elizabeth Campbell, Harry Morgan, Hazel Thorn, Karolina Baines, Lucy Simpson, Juli Bolanos-Durman, Karen Westland, Min Zhong and Mirka Janeckova.
The awards are also hosted by Harris Tweed Hebrides creative director, Mark Hogarth.
Four winners will be presented with a 2016 Inches Carr Graduate Craft Award each to the value of £2,500 at a ceremony dinner attended by leading professionals within the fields of art, craft and design.
All 10 designers are invited to exhibit their work at the 2017 Scottish Craft Awards.
The Graduate Craft Awards are the most recent addition to the bursaries and awards available through the Inches Carr Trust.
The Trust was set up to commemorate Deirdre Inches and Malcolm Carr, who were both involved in the jewellery and silver field..
More information is available at www.inchescarr.org.uk.