9 INDUSTRY NEWS M Courts Ltd has moved! M Courts Ltd is a small, family run wholesale company that has been trading since 1920 that specialises in haberdashery, trimmings, buttons, ribbons and lace. The company started out in the East End of London but moved from Brick Lane to Tottenham in 2002. M Courts can now be found at the following address: 2 Roman Court, Hurricane Way, Wickford, Essex, SS11 8YB. For further information, visit: www.mcourts.co.uk Industry news Latest news from the craft industry Golden Scissors Awards Craft Industry Alliance is proud to announce the winners of the first-ever Golden Scissors Awards recognising excellence in the crafts industry. The awards ceremony took place live on stage at h+h Americas at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Centre in Rosemont, Illinois. Five outstanding craft professionals were recognised in front of an audience of several hundred of their peers for their contributions to the industry. The craft industry is made up of both worldclass corporations and thousands of visionary small business owners, whose never-ending creativity continually lifts the entire sector to new heights. The Golden Scissors Awards are an opportunity for the industry to acknowledge those who have offered outstanding leadership and innovation and made important contributions to the industry as a whole. Nominations for the awards opened in January of this year and were open for a month. In March, each nominee was considered individually and confidentially by a panel of five judges nominated by the Craft Industry Alliance Board of Advisors. Judges for this year’s awards were Brittany Gray, president of EE Schenck, Ed Roth, artist and founder of Stencil1, Kate Butler, Chief Content Officer of Golden Peak Media, Kathy Cano-Marillo, artist and founder of The Crafty Chica, and Dana Williams-Johnson, assistant professor at Howard University There were five categories of awards given this year: Emerging Leader, Innovation, Sustainability, Social Impact, and Lifetime Achievement. For Emerging Leader, the award winner was Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji who is making a difference in the lives of countless young people in her home country of Nigeria. Through her organisation, Tunnizze Creation, she has set a goal to reach 20,000 African children with the skills of knitting and crochet. For Sustainability, the award winner was Ali Pate, an indie yarn dyer of Road Trip Sock Yarn who has worked to make every single step of her process better for the environment. From reusable materials, to printing on post-consumer recycled paper, to sourcing energy from renewable and solar and creating a home water collection system, she has collaborated with the Colorado Tree Coalition to facilitate planning trees in her home state. For Innovation, the award winners were Masey Kaplan and Jen Simonic, two co-founders who have come up with an organisation that eases grief, creates community, and inspires generosity. The Loose Ends Project matches volunteer handwork finishers with projects people have left unfinished due to death or disability and now has more than 20,000 volunteers globally who have completed 2,000 projects. For Social Impact, the award was Allyson Allen, the organiser of the Piece-ful Protest Quilt Exhibit which features 36 quilted textiles of protest art. Recognised by the State of California as an award winning Master African American textile artist and culture bearer, she organised this exhibit to be shown in Laguna Beach California where it had a significant impact in furthering the understanding of open-minded diversity and inclusivity. The Lifetime Achievement award winner was Warren Wheelock who, beginning in 1987, worked with spinning mills all over the world to develop yarn collections that would inspire makers and promote handknitting. Craft Industry Alliance co-founder and president, Abby Glassenberg, says of this year’s awards programme: “It’s so important that we have a way to honour and acknowledge those leaders in our industry who demonstrate excellence. This awards program gives all of us something to strive for and something to celebrate. These business leaders are incredibly impressive, and we’re thrilled to be able to present them with these esteemed awards.” The Golden Scissors Awards will be given annually each spring at h+h americas. Nominations for next year’s awards will open in January 2025.
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