snowdrops photo

Competition Time

Design a scarf in aid of St. Richard’s Hospice, Worcester.

st richards logo

Our spring scarf competition has now closed.

Thank you to everyone who took part and sent us their wonderful designs. We had a record number of entries! 

It was quite humbling to read the stories behind the designs and see how they had been translated into the submitted entries. St. Richard’s Hospice really is a tremendous haven of support for the local community and we are very pleased to be supporting them with their fund raising efforts.

The standard and volume of entries for this very special cause was exceptional, making the task of selecting a winner very difficult. Together with representatives from St. Richard’s Hospice we eventually chose the winning design. 

Amy Grazeley

Many congratulations to Amy our overall winner. The details within the design were so well considered and showed a compassionate response to the competition brief by this very talented designer. Look out for a full blog on our Latest News page for all the details coming shortly.

If you can’t wait, see Amy’s Instagram for more of her designs.

Win £500 worth of free fabric printing!

In Our Spring Charity Competition

The digital print process can often result in lengths of fabric being wasted. For example, ends of rolls that don’t quite fulfil a customer’s order. What a waste! In our endeavours to prevent fabric waste, we like to offer this ‘excess’ fabric to a worthy charity in the form of scarves, which they can then sell for fundraising. Here’s where you can help us! We invite you enter our latest competition to design a scarf for our chosen charity. You could win £500 worth of digital fabric printing!

Our latest design competition is in aid of St. Richard’s Hospice, a charity local to The Silk Bureau Ltd. in Worcestershire. Please take a moment to find out all about them and the wonderful work they do in the community. We are delighted to be able to support this charity.

The winning scarf design will be printed on ‘excess’ fabric whenever the opportunity presents itself throughout 2022. All the scarves will be hemmed and packaged before being delivered to St. Richard’s Hospice to be sold on.

We know what a talented lot of designers you are, so we are expecting a bumper collection of entries! When all the judging is complete and the scarves start to be printed, you can purchase one for yourself online or at select St. Richard’s shops in Worcestershire.

Scarf Design Brief

Time to get designing!

Design a snowdrop themed scarf appropriate for the charity. Look at the ethos of St. Richard’s Hospice, the work they do and what it means to so many people in need of support. Your finished scarf design may include photography, illustraton, painting, calligraphy or any media that you can digitally capture to answer the brief.

To maximise the fabric available, we need to have different sized scarves that we can just squeeze into those odd lengths at the end of an order. Please submit your design in 2 sizes:

One square, 100x100cm and one long, 120x45cm.

Your square scarf design should be able to scale from a 100x100cm square down to a 35x35cm square, so that we can fit as many scarves as possible into that otherwise wasted fabric. 

If you would like more hints and tips on designing a scarf, then check out our scarves page. 

How would you interpret a snowdrop in your design?

Caring, compassionate, committed, and professional

st richards hospice grounds image
st richards hospice image

St. Richard’s Hospice

St. Richard’s Hospice offers a wide range of support to patients, their families and carers including counselling, a bereavement service, Social Work, Citizens Advice, and group support.

Their aim is to “improve patients’ quality of life, helping them to live as fully as they can to the end of their lives, however long that may be.”

logo_single_snowdropThe snowdrop in the logo

What could be more appropriate for a spring design competition than the snowdrop? The St. Richard’s Hospice logo displays the snowdrop as a symbol of the care they provide.

The snowdrop logo was inspired by The Snowdrop – Consolation by Bishop Keble 1792-1886.

“I am come to calm your fears: I am come to console you in the absence of bright days, and to reassure you of their return.” 

Snowdrops are also a symbol of hope, consolation, and sympathy.

entry details

win £500 worth of free printing!

The Prize

The designer of the winning scarf will receive £500 worth of free printing, including Bureau Time and Delivery within the UK.*

As well as the free printing, we would also like to invite the winner for a tour of our Evesham factory, to see how the printing process works. It’s quite fascinating!

Credit for the design will be announced on all our marketing platforms by publishing the winner’s name and bio links.

You will also be helping to avoid waste by optimising the use of otherwise wasted fabric.

*(An international winning entry will be required to cover all the courier delivery costs to their chosen destination).

Submit 2 sizes

Design 1: 120x45cm long scarf

Design 2: 100x100cm square scarf

TIP: Your square scarf design should be able to scale from a 100x100cm square down to a 35x35cm square, so that we can fit as many scarves as possible into that otherwise wasted fabric. 

Submit your entry

Get your entries to us by

Monday 21st March 2022

Submit your competition entry by email to: socialmedia@silkbureau.co.uk

The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges representing St. Richard’s Hospice and The Silk Bureau Ltd. 

The winner will be announced on Monday 28th March 2022 through our social media and website platforms.

  1. No restrictions on the number of entries.
  2. £500 of free fabric printing is only available with The Silk Bureau Ltd. It includes Bureau Time, Delivery within the UK, and VAT. No cash alternative is available.
  3. The £500 prize is calculated from the full price list, current at the time of ordering the printing.
  4. The £500 prize cannot be used in conjunction with any other concessions, discounts, or special offers.
  5. In the event of an international winning entry the winner will cover the cost of delivery to their chosen destination.
  6. Scarves will be printed on a variety of our in-stock fabrics and finished with a machine pin hem.
  7. Scarf designs should be square 100x100cm and long 120x45cm, print-ready and saved with the correct printing specifications: 180–300dpi, RGB, Flattened JPEG, Colour Profile embedded.
  8. Scarf designs should be complete, i.e., border included (if required). 
  9. All entrants give consent to have their design published on our and St. Richard’s Hospice marketing platforms. 
  10. Deadline for submissions is 21st March 2022.
  11. The winner will be contacted via email/phone.
  12. The winner will be announced on 28th March 2022 and have their name and winning entry displayed on our website.
  13. The combined Silk Bureau Ltd. and St. Richard’s Hospice judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

SCHEDULED TIME: 18:00 - 19:00 27th MARCH 2024

ALERT!
WEBSITE SCHEDULED FOR MAINTENANCE

WEBSITE IS DOWN FROM 18:00 - 19:00 TODAY

In order to carry out some important updates, our website will be down for ONE hour on 27th March 2024 from 6pm – 7pm

During this time you will be unable to place an order. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause!

EASTER HOLIDAY CLOSURE DATES

CLOSED
FRIDAY 29th March - MONDAY 1st April

Happy Easter Holidays

Please be aware of the interruption to turnaround times during the Easter holiday period.

We will be open again on 2nd April 2024.

Printing Scarves

Shrinkage

The processes involved in digital textile printing causes the original fabric to shrink. If you are printing scarves, the size of the finished product will be important to you. For example, if you have square artwork, you will be expecting your finished scarf to be square!

To get the printed fabric closer to the size you need, all fabric intended for scarves must go through an extra step to reshape it. Please allow extra time on your deadlines to allow for this process. 

Let us introduce you to the …

Stenter

The stenter is an enormous piece of machinery that has many uses, including coating our fabrics and reshaping scarf orders.

After travelling through a solution to soften the fabric, it then passes over a flat bed, gripped on the selvedge edges to pull it back into shape. 

It’s a long and precise process that needs to be carefully monitored.

Shrinkage Disclaimer

If you have selected to use our hemming service, we will check the stentered fabric for you before we begin to finish your scarves. If you are not using our service, it’s up to you to check the size BEFORE you cut out the individual scarves from the fabric length. We cannot re-size after your scarves have been cut out.