STUDENTS from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham have been awarded the first, second and highly commended prizes in this year’s regional heats of the Society of Dyers and Colourists Colour competition.

Marking the first time the competition judges have awarded so many students from the same university, final year student Hannah Rumsey was declared overall winner, and second year students Jess Smith and Evie Francis secured a runner up place and highly recommended award respectively, all hailing from the BA (Hons) textiles for fashion and interiors course at UCA Farnham.

Taking part in the London heats, the students all had to put together four boards illustrating their own response to the theme ‘Making it Personal’ with imagery and samples, and present it to industry judges at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.

The designs from runner up Jess were inspired by her own personal collection of agates, which are a type of quartz.

“I chose to use these for my project because I love colour and each of my agates are so strong in colour,” said Jess, 20, who hopes to work in the textile industry after graduating. “To get second place in the London heats was absolutely amazing for me, as it’s my first competition I’ve entered work into!”

Winner Hannah Rumsey hopes to explore upholstery in her career once she’s graduated, and entered a body of work based on allotments.

“I visited Farnham allotments, ones near Reading and also kitchen gardens from a few National Trust sites then drew from the vegetables and fruit and used colours found in the allotments,” said Hannah, 21. “My designs focused around the blackberry design that I’d painted, all of which were hand screen-printed using colour separation.”

Speaking of the moment she found out she was the winner, Hannah said: “I was shocked and surprised! I didn’t know what to say. I did feel quite proud though, and it gave me a bit of a confident boost for my work.”

Hannah will compete with four other regional winners to progress to the global grand final, where the overall winner will receive £1,000 in cash and a trophy.

“I’m a bit nervous about going up against others from the UK, especially as they’re meant to be the best from their region. Hopefully it goes OK, but even winning just this part of it was good and still quite an achievement.”

For more examples of Hannah’s work, visit the website available at uca.ac.uk/study/courses/ba-textiles-fashion-interiors.