A weaver who created work celebrating the beauty of yarn in its purest form has won the Gold Medal for Craft and Design at the Rhondda Cynon Taf National Eisteddfod 2024
Laura Thomas from Ewenni near Bridgend will receive the medal in a special ceremony on the first day of the Eisteddfod in Pontypridd.
Laura Thomas is an established woven textile artist, designer and maker specialising in producing unconventional textiles for contemporary spaces.
She presented six pieces of work for the selectors to consider for the competition and they will be exhibited in Y Lle Celf during the Eisteddfod.
Describing her work she said: "My work celebrates the beauty of yarn in its purest form; its essence and the metaphors it encapsulates.
“Whatever its inherent character is, it is brought to the fore and informs how it is used to create the resulting woven work, whether in its heavy metallic luster or dry rigidity or smooth flexibility.
"The artworks were created by hand intuitively and are intended to present a quiet, visual meditation; a reaction against the chaos and uncertainty of recent times.
“There are gentle rhythms, glimpses beyond the surface and evocative textures to capture our curiosity and land on busy minds."
She added that she had worked on the pieces for several months.
"My work is intricate and technical. I use different threads and processes and some of these take time to complete. The Cascades piece took two months to complete for example," she said.
Cecile Johnson Soliz, one of the selectors of the Open Exhibition, said, "Laura Thomas' textiles are stunningly beautiful objects.
"The 'thread' itself is something so important to her that she entices me to rethink how I seeing the simplest things.
"The range of materials, from natural to synthetic fibres, and her knowledge of them, is immense. Light, nature and time are woven into her works, some of which take months to create . She is a well-deserved winner of the Gold Medal for Craft and Design."
Since her first experience of weaving in 1996, Laura has been completely absorbed by her endless scope for exploration and experimentation.
She holds a first class degree from Birmingham City University, an MA from the Royal College of Art and two research fellowships in the discipline of weaving. Laura established her studio in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2004 and has worked on a very diverse range of projects covering public art, commercial textile design, curation, artist residencies and creating work for exhibition.
Laura has work in the permanent collection at the National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and in a number of private collections.
Laura was awarded one of the first Creative Wales Ambassador Awards by the Arts Council of Wales.
In addition, Laura has been a part-time BA Textiles lecturer at Carmarthen School of Art since 2004 and has extensive experience presenting workshops in schools, community groups and galleries.
Laura Thomas' work will be on display at Y Lle Celf. The National Eisteddfod will be held in Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd from August 3-10. For more details go to eisteddfod.cymru.
