FUTURE visitors to Cardigan Castle will be able to buy special blankets inspired by the castle.

Winners of an annual competition, open to any art, design, craft or architecture student in a Welsh College or University have been announced. The competition, run jointly by The National Wool Museum, The Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter and Cardigan Castle sees a record number of entries of ninety three by students from Coleg Sir Gâr, Swansea Metropolitan University and Coleg Cambria, Yale. Their work will not only be on display in an exhibition at the National Wool Museum from 12 November 2013 to 15 January 2014 but will also be put into production and sold.

The exhibition, Future Designs Inspired by the Past, is curated from the work of the students who were inspired by the three venues - the buildings themselves, associated history, the historic collections and their stories. The theme for this year’s competition was Journeys.

There was a choice of two categories within the competition. The first was to design a blanket to commemorate Cardigan Castle’s opening in 2014. This blanket will be for sale at the Castle shop and also placed in the self-catering cottages. The second category was to design a commercial product, such as a scarf or handkerchief to sell at all three shops. This product needed to be commercially viable and suitable for sale in all shops and had to be suitable for batch production as well as complementing the existing range of goods currently for sale at the shops.

The winners of the first category, who were briefed to create a contemporary design through generating a mood board as well as a finished design or woven sample, while exploring different colourways were, in first place, Jasmin Violet Thomas from Swansea Metropolitan University for her ‘oily cog’ design, in second place Gwennan Sault-Jones, Coleg Sir Gâr, and in joint third place Ciara Long from Swansea Metropolitan University and Ceris James, Coleg Sir Gâr. Special mentions were also given to Frances Dixon, Swansea Metropolitan University, Rachel Bluck also of Swansea Metropolitan University and Tom Horton, Coleg Cambria, Yale.

The judges of this category were Eleanor Pritchard, a London based textile designer; Raymond and Diane Jones, owners of Melin Teifi; and Jann Tucker, Chairperson of Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust. Jasmin Violet Thomas will now work with a textile specialist to get the blanket into production.

The winners of the second category, who were briefed to design a commercial product, such as a scarf or handkerchief to sell at all three shops, clearly communicating in their statement their target customer, method and cost of manufacture, materials choice, total cost price, retail price-point, margin and packaging were, in first place, Jeris Spencer from Swansea Metropolitan University for her the colourful and fresh design that combined traditional floral quilt fabric patterns and colour inspiration from the Kaffe Fassett quilts, with the traditional shapes from the National Wool Museum. In second place, Ebony Parkes from Swansea Metropolitan University and in third place Chloe Pullin, Swansea Metropolitan University. Special mention were also given to Loretta Richards from Swansea Metropolitan University.

The judges for this category, which will be on sale in the shops of three venues were Jen Jones, Co-director of The Welsh Quilt Centre; Ann Whittall, Manager of the National Wool Museum; Joanna Thomas, Learning Officer at the National Wool Museum; Jo Collins, Commercial Manager at National Museum Wales; and Ruth Amesbury, Enterprises Finance Officer.

Ann Whittall, Manager of the National Wool Museum said: “There is a lot of important partnership work that goes into the organising and delivering of this competition. We feel that this competition contributes highly to our work of sharing our collections and our heritage. We feel it makes a difference to how our future designers will work - with a great deal of respect for the past and for Welsh heritage.”

She added: “This is the third year that we have included a second category where the commercial aspect is incorporated. We felt that this is vital to ensure that students, not only develop their creative side but also their business skills to enable them to turn what they love and are good at into a profitable business for them.”

She added: “This competition is going from strength to strength and the standard of entries this year were all very high. We appreciate the hard work the students and their lecturers have put into this work and thank them for participating.”