Awards & Recognition
National Embroidery Awards UK – Winner 2025
Winner - Tharani
Inspired by “Wings of Freedom,” Transbee is Tharan’s first completed embroidery artwork, inspired by years of growing up around his mother’s embroidery studio. Surrounded by threads, beads, fabrics, and intricate craftsmanship from a young age, his curiosity for the art naturally evolved into creating this unique lenticular bumblebee piece.
Using a blend of satin stitch, French knots, battlement couching, backstitch, running stitch, and buttonhole stitch, Transbee showcases careful stitch planning, texture, and movement. The artwork beautifully reflects both creativity and technical detail, making the journey even more memorable with its win at the National Embroidery Competition 2025.
National Embroidery Awards UK – 2025
Winner - Priyaguna Sundararajan Visalakshi
Reds, Blues and Oranges capture the dynamic tension between the composed and grounded inner self in a reverberating chaotic environment. The blue giraffe stands tall with grace, unique identity and otherness. A moment of intense contrasting energy – where the inner world holds steady even when everything around shifts and ignites. The abstract landscape surrounding it grows out of bold, emotive color—an approach influenced by the expressive freedom of Post-Impressionistic thinking, where texture becomes a language of its own. The reds, oranges, and yellows pulse with a vibrant living force, pushing forward with the kind of raw, emotional heat that I associate with the world’s constant motion. Here, color behaves not as description but as sensation.
Throughout the piece, I lean into the Fauvist belief that non-naturalistic hues can trigger emotional resonance. This expressive energy creates a tension between the cool blue figure and the warm, consuming background—a conversation between order vs passion. Through
the deliberate act of the stitch, I celebrate the courage of maintaining one’s calm in a fiery, dynamic world.
TRANQUILITY
a memorabilia of my time at Royal School of Needlework and the incredible journey. It is based on a picture I took of the Hampton Court Palace, UK. Every time I turn this particular corner of the corridor I have felt a promise of a wonderful day. For me, the empty bench is a soft resonance of memories – like an old picture tucked away in a drawer. It represents a place that was once filled with laughter, conversation, secrets, gossips, and much more. It is kind of a metaphor for memory; taking us down our memory lane. The monochromatic palatte reduces distractions, letting the embroidery and the story take the center stage.
Inspired by a photograph from my time studying at the Royal School of Needlework, TRANQUILITY captures an empty bench in the courtyard of Hampton Court Palace. This space serves as a metaphor for memory, bridging my personal journey with historical echoes of royal laughter and whispered gossip. Utilizing traditional Blackwork embroidery, the piece relies on a strict monochromatic palette of black thread on fabric. This intentional technical choice reduces distractions, allowing the precise, geometric stitches and the quiet resonance of the frozen moment to take center stage in my personal memoir.
National Embroidery Awards UK 2026
Winner - Tharani
The Gentle Giant honours Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhinoceros, using embroidery to reflect on conservation and the fragile future of wildlife.
National Embroidery Awards UK 2026
Runner-Up
Priyaguna Sundararajan Visalakshi
Crimson Gold – Legacy Retold reimagines the Indian peacock motif through English goldwork, connecting heritage with contemporary embroidery.
Exhibition and Gallery Presence
- Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, UK - 2025
- Gallery 76, New South Wales, Australia - 2025
- The Creative Crafts Show, NEC Birmingham, UK - 2025,2026
