Thank you to everyone who entered this year’s Braille Art Competition, celebrating 200 years of Braille!
Entries were judged by VICTA’s Patron Clarke Reynolds, who joined us in the VICTA office so he could carefully look over, touch/feel and appreciate everyone’s hard work. Clarke was so impressed with the standard of entries and the wonderful range of ideas and creativity that really sparked his passion and joy of tactile arts! Clarke had a tough job choosing winners and wanted to pass on that everyone should be proud of what they achieved.
We hope you enjoy the gallery of art and the winning entries as much as we have!
Category 1 – Braille your name
Children with a vision impairment aged 0 to 10 years were challenged to make their name out of braille in the most creative way possible.
First place – Ryder, age 9
Ryder has created his first name in footballs, his middle name in CDs and gaming controllers and his surname in people!
Ryder tells us: “My interests include football, gaming, and my friends. I have been playing football for all my life and I have played in games for Treharris under 9s, I am a massive Cardiff fan and go to watch the games (even though I don’t really see them). I really enjoy playing games, my favourite games include Fortnite and EAFC 25 on my PS5. I also love spending time with my friends whether I am in school or outside. Behind the scenes of making my name it took a lot of effort because we had to find footballs and cones and organising my friends.”
Clarke loved how Ryder’s art ‘went big’!
Runner-up – Corben
Corben has written ‘Corben Elliot’ in braille using dog treats on a long strip of yellow paper. He has also shown his dog eating the treats.
Clarke loved that Corben’s artwork was like a living art instillation and commented ‘The dog ate my homework’ literally stands in this case!
Dexter, age 8
“Dexter is currently potions crazy so decided to braille his name using some of his many potions. Ethan who is Harry Potter crazy of cause had to join in.”
The top photo shows Dexter looking in wonder at his arrangement of miniature potion bottles. Below his brother stands next to his potions dressed in a Harry Potter cloak.
Eitan, age 8
“Eitan has used biscuits, icing and mini marshmallows to write out his full name: Eitan Brodkin. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this, especially eating some biscuits!!”
In the photo Eitan smiles while holding his biscuit/marshmallow braille art!
Teddy, age 8
Teddy planned his work of art and decided to write his name out of teddy shaped objects. He came up with a list of objects he needed including maths ‘compare bears’ and some favourite edible bears such as Barny Bear sponge cakes, jelly Haribo bears and Pom Bear crisps. He chose the blue ‘compare bears’ as blue is his favourite colour.
The photo shows Teddy smiling with the different bear’s laid out in front to create his name in braille. Teddy enjoyed eating the bears once he had finished!
Minnah, age 7
Minnah has arranged foam stickers, wobbly eyes and gems onto a large sheet of blue paper to represent her name in braille. She is holding the art up in front of her head!
Emilly, age 4
“Emilly has just started reception this year and has been excited to progress her brailling skills!”
Emilly has drawn her name in Braille on a large sheet of white paper. She has coloured in large circles with different bright colours. She has drawn people in bright colours and written her name underneath. Emilly is holding up her artwork with arms outstretched.
Amy
Amy holds up her artwork and smiles. She has stuck red buttons onto red corrugated card to represent her name in a tactile way.
“Amy has ‘hidden’ her name all in red, but made it tactile using buttons on corrugated cardboard.”
Ivor, age 8
“Ivor has chosen a natural theme and has very much enjoyed creating this during his braille lessons.”
The braille ‘I’ has been created with yellow paper butterflies, the ‘v’ using round wooden blocks, the ‘o’ with three green clay frogs sitting on a watery background and the ‘r’ using three daisy’s on a green background.
Juliana, age 8
The photo shows Juliana working on her artwork, she has drawn a picture with a black background and written in braille at the top using pom poms. She has also written in braille using larger silver gems and a raised yellow foam box with red buttons on to be braille.
Category 2 – Change and Adapt
Children and young adults with a vision impairment aged 11 to 29 years were challenged to create a piece of braille art with the theme of ‘change and adapt’, this year’s theme for British Science Week.
First place – Lacey-Mae, age 12
Congratulations to Lacey-Mae who is the winner of the ‘change and adapt’ category.
“Lacey-Mae worked on conveying her emotions and facial expressions through the work of artist Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga. Her hair is important to her and she has had to adapt to the changes that have been personal to her during her time in hospital.”
Clarke loved Lacey-Mae’s artwork and was particularly impressed with the powerful story that accompanied her piece.
Lacey-Mae has drawn a colourful picture with different shapes. There is a big purple heart shape, a tree with red branches and blue leaves and pink flowers dotted around. There are also little dots, squiggly lines, and bright colours all around. There is a small piece of paper with dots for braille. It is a very colourful piece with teal, pink, red, blue and more!
Lacey-Mae has created a piece that features a mixed-media artwork on paper, combining watercolour and various materials. At the top, there is a red-orange flower with a yellow centre, painted in a soft, blended style. Below it, an arrangement of fabric scraps, strings, beads, and other materials form an abstract shape resembling a face or figure. Two round beige rocks with small eyes give a suggestion of a face, while colourful ribbons and wires extend outward. The bottom of the artwork includes painted areas: a blue circular section with white linework and a green shape with red details. She has used many different textures and a large array of colours.
Runner-up – Riley, age 10
Congratulations to Riley who is our runner-up in the change and adapt category.
Riley printed out a photo of himself in black and white and cut out the shape of his shirt in white paper which is embossed with braille. He cut out the shape of his hair from brown paper, also embossed with braille. He has outlined his hair using black string and cut different coloured braille embossed paper for his other facial features – pink lips, white teeth, beige eyebrows, white eyelids, light blue eyes. Riley stuck on bright green buttons on top to be his pupils.
Clarke loved Riley’s artwork and it reminded him of a piece of art that he did when he first started being a Braille artist!
“Riley’s choice of change and adapt is himself. 5 years ago, Riley was a full sighted 5-year-old boy within 10 days Riley had completely lost his sight due to a large undiagnosed brain tumour causing hydrocephalus. He has spent the last 5 years changing and adapting every aspect of his life, learning new skills to navigate his life. Riley has struggled with the change but has worked hard to adapt his thinking and always given his everything with a big smile on his face. He has stayed in a mainstream school and has obviously had lots of problems being the only Visually Impaired child in the school but he has adapted his learning and is keeping up with his peers!”
Rajvinder, age 18
Rajvinder has created two pieces.
Image 1: A tree with vibrant purple rose petals, set against a dark background. The tree trunk is brown, crafted from crumpled paper. The ground is covered in green textured material with scattered purple rose petals and small white snowflake shapes. Additional white and yellow floral details are on the lower left. The dark background features more white snowflakes and yellow star-like shapes.
Image 2: This piece features a textured, three-dimensional mountain-like shape made from crumpled paper in various colours. The top is dark brown and black, transitioning into green, then shades of yellow, orange, and red at the bottom. The background is painted blue and white, possibly representing the sky. It symbolises a volcano.
Benji, age 10
Benji has created a chameleon for the competition ‘change and adapt’. A chameleon adapts to its environment by changing colours to hide from predators. Benji has used all the colours of the rainbow to represent his favourite charity ‘VICTA’. He has used scented cinnamon sticks to make the chameleon’s branch and a variety of tactile objects to make his colourful chameleon.
Category 3 – Clarke’s Challenge: LOVE
Clarke Reynolds challenged children and young adults with a vision impairment aged 11 to 29 years to create a piece of braille art themed around the word Love.
First place – Bella, age 18
Congratulations to Bella who is the winner of Clarke’s ‘LOVE’ challenge!
Bella loves Braille so much that she made a miniature Perking Brailler! Clarke, who also loves his Perkins thought it was ‘genius’ and clear how much effort had gone into creating a mini one.
Bella has made her Brailler out of a turquoise painted egg box. She has stuck on buttons made of black paper and added pipe cleaners for the turning wheel. She’s even added a sheet of white paper coming out of the egg box, ready to be embossed! She has written ‘Love’ on the top of the Brailler in braille using red heart stickers for the dots.
Runner-up – Scarlett, age 19
Congratulations to Scarlett who is the runner-up in Clarke’s ‘LOVE’ challenge!
Scarlett’s favourite piece of music in print overlayed with the music score in braille. In the corner is a QR code, which when scanned, leads you to the piece being performed. The idea is that music can be loved by everyone, and can be accessed by anyone through print, braille or auditory. Her art piece is called, ‘If music be the food of love, play on.’
Dayzie, age 16
“Dayzie is severely visually impaired, she wrote the word ‘love’ in braille across the middle using different textured items and put lots of tactile elements around it that she loves. On the right-hand side side has brailled ‘I love braille because it makes me be independent by letting me label things so I know what the item is’. At the bottom she used gems to represent braille words.
Stevie, age 15
‘Love is blind’ – Stevie has written love is blind using different materials for each letter on red paper. these materials are raised and tactile, including pompoms, pipe cleaners, string, and sequins. underneath each word he has written it in braille and stuck it on underneath.
George, age 17
George has used the background of a scrabble board printed on a piece of paper for his art. He has created a grid including the words cherish, hugs, hope, love, worship, adores, and heart by sticking on a raised out line of the squares on the grid where the letters are and brailling the letters onto the squares. He has used the same method to add the title love wins in the top of the board. In this photo George is outside holding his braille art.
Michael, age 15
For Remembrance Day, Michael created a soldier to symbolise the love for all those fallen. He has braille embossed dots in the shape of the soldier on a sheet of orange paper.
Evie, age 14
Evie has created a flat heart shape out of clay which she has painted white. She has written love in braille using different multicoloured buttons and beads – with a different shape for each letter. She has used the colours red, orange, blue, yellow, and plain wood.
Ruby, age 20
Ruby brailled statements saying ‘I love you’ in different languages, including French, German and Spanish. She has stuck these on to a piece of A4 red card. In the middle of the card she positioned a pink foam heart. On this she has used 3D gem stones in different shapes to write the shortform ‘brl’ for braille. She used 2 heart shaped gems for ‘b’, 4 round gems for ‘r’ and 3 flower shaped gems for ‘l’. Around her braille statements and the foam heart she has used puffy heart shaped stickers and more gems to add interest. Ruby loves something sparkly!
Elouise-Mae, age 10
Elouise-Mae has made a heart by sticking red felt in a heart shape on black paper. She has added levels of felt by sticking a smaller heart shape on top of the bigger sizes. She has written love in braille 3 times at the top and bottom of the paper with pink and silver gems, with a pink heart gem in between each love. She has decorated the sides with pink and purple roses and pink and purple gems.
Cora
Cora has cut out a red heart shape which is filled with braille and stuck it onto a piece of pink paper. Underneath she has written love in braille using red gems.
Laura
Laura has created a piece that contains two hands infused with braille song titles on the theme of love. She says “the handprints represent shared love, they are similar but not too identical as shown by the different tactile materials used as outlined. I placed tactile buttons in the Braille configuration of the words ‘ love songs’. I chose the theme of love songs because I love singing and music, the central shape is a braille heart”
Maia
Maia has used different sized foam heart shapes to layer them up and create the word ‘love’ in braille.
Entries from groups and schools
Groups and schools supporting children and young people with a vision impairment were invited to enter a category of their choice!
First place – Moor End Academy
Congratulations to our winners Moor End Academy, Clarke was so impressed by your artwork commenting that it was a wonderful activity lots of school groups could try and deserved to be up on display!
The VICTA team and Clarke holding up all the elements of the artwork to spell out the word ‘love’.
The next images show the individual letters – created on large pieces of cardboard that each have a bronze painted letter in the corner for those who don’t read braille. The braille letters have been created using card circles, each individually decorated by a student to represent something they love.
‘L’ – Four circles in the shape of a braille ‘L’. The circles are decorated with books (to show their love for school), a basketball net, a teddy in bed and a football.
‘O’ – Three circles in the shape of a braille ‘O’. The circles are decorated with two lollipop stick people to represent family, popcorn to represent cinema and a tactile pizza made from sticky foam.
‘V’ – Four circles with the Crescent and Star symbol of Islam (to show their love for their religion), a chicken burger complete with a Nando’s napkin, two balls going into a goalball net and the flag of Ireland.
‘E’ – A circle contains a raised swell paper drawing of two girls (to show their love for drawing) and the other circle contains a tactile iced ring donut (to show their love of sugar).
This rectangular cardboard background has two hearts: one has a collection of rainbow feathers stuck on it to represent a parrot and the other has a white background and PlayStation buttons on it.
A rectangular cardboard background with three hearts on it: one heart is a beach scene with shells, an umbrella and the sun. The next heart is the flag of Scotland and the final one has had empty sweet wrappers stuck onto it.
Runners-up – Priestley Smith Primary
Clarke loved how the children at Priestley Smith Specialist School found so many exciting ways to get creative with Braille! Congratulations to all of the students who are the runners-up in this category.
The students have created a piece which displays six drawings of football jerseys placed on green football fields with white boundary lines. Each jersey has a unique colour and pattern, including combinations of purple, black, yellow, red, green, and white. At the bottom of each piece it includes braille.
Six individual students have created pieces where it spells out their names in braille using different things to represent each different dot, such as flowers, fish, plants, shapes, poppies and feathers. They have also used different coloured backgrounds as the base to stick on each braille letter.
This piece shows individual student’s work of food-based creations including braille. Various foods, including biscuits, cupcakes, cereals, and meals like burgers with vegetables, are arranged on vibrant coloured plates and trays. The food items, including eggs in egg boxes are arranged to represent their names in braille.
Four students at Priestley Smith Specialist School have created pieces using braille but represented in different ways. Student 1 has created a piece with a blue base and orange border, and the centre on top of that base features coloured translucent rocks spelling out a word in braille. Student 2 has created a piece that features a red base and green border using buttons to represent each dot of braille. Student 3 has also used a red base and green border however used sticky googly eyes to represent each dot of braille. Student 4 has used a red base and paint pots, to represent braille. First being pink, then black then green and lastly orange.
Great Binfields Primary School
Farrah, aged 10
Farrah has drawn a creature with big ears, eyes, and a big mouth on a round body using black pen. It has a small, realistic nose and thin arms and legs coming out of the body. It is drawn in a realistic and fantasy art style. Underneath ‘Farrah’ is written in braille and there is a second smaller version of the creature hanging off the first ‘r’.
Aria, age 9
Aria drew a picture of how she would like to look when she changes into an adult. She has changed her blond hair to brunette and has removed her glasses. She has a smiling face and a purple dress coloured in using colouring pencils.
Aria, Farrah and friends, spelt out change in letters using their bodies. They then spelt it in braille once using their bodies and again using African drums.
New College Worcester
This is a soft, handmade teddy bear made of brown fabric that is just bigger than your hand. It has blue button eyes, a stitched smile, and a shiny decoration on its belly. A bright pink ribbon is tied around its neck. There is a little tag attached giving information about the little teddy bear.
A4 sheet of white paper with a big, rainbow, pompom heart in the middle! The heart and edges are decorated with lots of tiny, colourful pompom dots. The bright colours make it look happy and fun.
This is a lovely felt pink heart on a grey paper background! The heart is covered with colourful little dots and tiny pom pom buttons, making it look bright and cheerful. It looks soft to touch!
This picture has four fun designs: a green leaf with lines, a bunch of pink and red buttons like berries, a cute snowman with a carrot nose, and a big purple and pink butterfly. Each section also has Braille writing to read what the drawing is of.
The student has created a notebook with braille imprints on the front and inside the book. The cover being a beige colour and the inside being a periwinkle purple colour. They have used a bright pink bow to tie it all up together to create the actual notebook itself
This student has created a felt piece of art, making a horse. It features a blue background and a grey horse with a white stripe along its nose. It has two eyes and black pony hair.
This student has used white paper as a base, then has drawn a base of an animal on that same paper. They have shaded in the legs, tail and ears brown. Stuck googly eyes on the face then used a brown, beige , white array of buttons to stick onto the body of the animal.
This artwork is made of four fabric squares stitched together, each featuring Braille dots, letters, and small felt images. The pictures include a leopard, an octopus, a volcano, and a fried egg. The letters spell out “love,” in Braille and in the alphabet.
This artwork is made on a shiny orange sheet with raised designs of five cat-like figures holding little red hearts. There is Braille writing at the top, making the picture interesting to touch and read. The figures get bigger from the right to the left.
They’ve has used red LEGO pieces to say “ I heart braille” they have also used a purple string at the bottom to underline it like a smile.
This student has decorated a plain white piece of paper: using a light blue tissue paper to the right to imitate a sky, some cotton buds across the top to imitate clouds, a beaded gold necklace used to imitate a sun placed centre right, a golden cobweb pattern stretched along the centre, blue tissue paper and white tissue paper scrunched up and stuck along the bottom and has made a clay model stuck onto the right of the sheet made from brown, red and two black beads stuck onto it.
This picture shows a colourful artwork made with a bright pink background. On top, there are different papers, some with printed words and some with braille writing that can be read by touch. One paper has a story with a little drawing of a sun and a cupcake. The smaller papers are light pink and light yellow.
City of York Council
The City of York Council Braille Club have created nine hearts on red paper. they have cut out hearts from pink paper and glued them on top. they have decorated each heart with red, white, pink, and purple pompoms and colourful sequins.
“This entry is from a weekly Braille club we run at a mainstream primary school where we have a student with no vision. They are learning braille and how to be good advocates for their classmate. All the children are in year 4, aged 8-9 years old.”
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