gallery – BronzCreative

Wow! To my great surprise, my knitted shawl won 1st place in the Crafts section of Kāpiti Arts and Crafts Society’s annual Awards. The 2026 theme was ‘Art and Craft inspired by popular music’. The shawl was very beautifully displayed by the Kāpiti Gallery exhibition team.

My shawl’s inspiration was “I see fire (inside the mountain)” by Ed Sheeran, from The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug (link) – although I first heard the fantastic version by Sol3 Mio (link).

2nd place was won by fellow “Spinning, Weaving and Knitting group” member, Valerie Copeland for her fabulous quilt.

Here’s the citation from judge Fiona Christeller: “1st Bronwyn White: Shawl – Wool – ‘I see Fire – Ed Sheeran’

“The shawl clearly provides an image of the mountain being sung about. The swirling fire, vibrant reds and orange swirl and intermingle with remaining colours and textures. The knitting technique looks complex – I like the use of different knitting types and the way colours wind their way around the body and into each other.”

Icing on the cake: the shawl was bought before the exhibition closed and the buyer told me she loves it!

Two of my fibre artworks have sold this week, Silver Birch with Lavender through from out of the blue studio gallery in Ōpunake, and Summer into Autumn at the Waikanae Community Market. The second sale followed a conversation about the fibres I used, and I mentioned that work submitted to the gallery in Ōpunake is required to be made from “all natural fibres – no synthetics allowed”, and how it’s influenced my choices so that (unless using up bits of my old stash) I now try to use all NZ wool, sometimes cotton, but no acrylics. The ‘browsers’ returned a short time later to purchase a fibre artwork, saying, “We’d like to support you.”

Links to: Silver Birch Forest, Stitching inspired by mosaic art, and Fibre Art