Above: Midnight Wing and Summer Blooms, by Dianne Rees
The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (AGWSD) in the UK organises a National Exhibition every 2 years to showcase the skills and creativity of members of their affiliated and associated guilds, including the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (IGWSD).
This year, the National Exhibition was held between 1st and 29th October 2026 at the Rose Paterson Gallery, Shifnal, with the theme ‘A Festival of Flora and Fauna’ . The AGWSD invited Guild members to apply to be selected for the exhibition. As well as the selected pieces, any Guild could enter bunting to the exhibition, at a cost of 5 per flag.
One of the newer members of the IGWSD, Dianne Rees, decided to enter a tapestry for the exhibition this year. Dianne had taken a rigid heddle weaving course with Máire in August 2025 as part of the Guild’s offering for August Craft Month. Following this, Dianne had enrolled with Liberties College in their Textiles course.
If selected, Dianne planned to put her piece Midnight Wing and Summer Blooms forward for the Lylie Smart trophy. This trophy is awarded to a novice handweaver, handspinner or hand dyer – currently defined as someone who has been practicing the craft for less than 3 years. The winner is decided by public vote. The trophy was commissioned by Mr John Smart in memory of his wife, Lylie Smart. She was a spinner and weaver who taught weaving at an evening class at Southend College in the 1970s.
However, the first step was to apply to be selected for the exhibition. Every stage of the application seemed to require concentration to do it correctly: filling out the application form, making a sample piece, taking good photographs, paying the application fee in sterling and posting the forms off to the UK. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the application was gone in the post!
The good news arrived on the 9th of August: Dianne’s piece had been accepted for the exhibition! All that remained now was for Dianne to wrap up her piece well and post it off to the UK in good time.
Dianne went to visit the exhibition in October and here are some of her photos and her review of the exhibition.
“On the 1st of October, the AGWSD National Exhibition “A Festival of Flora and Fauna ” opened at the Rose
Paterson Art Gallery, Weston-under-Lizard, Shifnal, in Staffordshire, UK. I travelled over to see the exhibition. I could hardly believe that I would get to see my tapestry hanging there with all the other entries.
Upon entering the building, one was immediately greeted by an amazing assortment of bunting, lining the stairs leading to the gallery on the first floor. It took time to climb the stairs as each individual flag required attention as they were all so different in style, theme, texture, colour… and this was just the start.
In the gallery itself, all the surfaces were jam-packed with the crafted pieces demonstrating the talent, creativity, expertise and masterful skills of all.
The walls of the gallery were brimming with pieces of work that were a joy to look at, all amazing and inspiring.
I really enjoyed my visit. I would recommend to anyone who is interested in weaving, spinning and dyeing to make the time to visit the next National Exhibition. The exhibition was a credit to the AGWSD and to all who had contributed a piece. You can expect to see me at the 2028 National Exhibition!”
We at the IGWSD are very proud of you Dianne, for being selected for the exhibition and for the hard work of getting your piece to the UK. Well done on being selected, it’s a great honour!
[The results for the Lylie Smart Trophy were not yet available at time of writing, Nov 2026.]
