Thank you to everyone who entered the VICTA Braille Art competition, we were truly inspired by the imagination and creativity displayed in the entries. Due to the number of entries we unfortunately won’t be producing a booklet however all of the entries are displayed below for you to enjoy. The competition was judged by VICTA staff and Trustees, which was no easy task, but the votes have been counted and we are pleased to announce the very deserving winners:
Category 1 – braille your name (age: 0 to 10 years)
1st place
Congratulations to our winner of the braille your name competition, Emily, whose school friends helped her to recreate her name in braille.
The photo shows children sitting in a school hall. The children are arranged to represent the dots of braille and the pattern formed is that of ‘Emily’ written in braille. There are two children sat at the front holding up a sign. The sign reads Emily and has the braille equivalent below in dots. The photo has been taken from high up. The children are all smiling however for the purpose of sharing online their faces have been blurred out.
2nd place
Congratulations to our runner up Alma who used hand prints and different coloured paint to depict her name in braille.
The first photo shows Alma’s name in braille created using hand prints. Alma has dipped her hands in different coloured paints and then pressed them onto white paper to create prints in the pattern of her name in braille. Each letter is a different colour – Dot (indicating a capital letter) = red, A = purple, L = blue, M = green and A = orange.
The second photo shows Alma in her apron doing the hand printing.
Category 2 – braille in pictures! (Age: 11 to 29 years)
1st place
Congratulations to our winner of braille in pictures, Grace who recreated Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting The Mona Lisa in braille.
Grace used braille dots to recreate Leonado da Vinci’s famous masterpiece The Mona Lisa. Grace has embossed onto white paper splitting the image over six pieces of paper to produce the image on a large scale. For block area’s of the picture, Grace has used all six dots on the braille template (or for braille users, the contracted braille for the word ‘for’). This is repeated in the shape of her hair. The body and face have been left blank and the eyebrows, nose and mouth have been formed using a variety of dots.
The first image shows a photograph of the picture (it is embossed white so may be difficult to see). The second photo shows the same image but with the contrast greatly increased to help with visibility of the image.
2nd place
Congratulations to runner up Rosie who created an intricately layered image of brailled paper in different colours and shapes.
Rosie has brailled different coloured papers, cut them into shapes and layered them to make a tactile image of a landscape. The background is on blue paper to represent the sky, this has patterns embossed using braille. On the left hand-side purple paper has been embossed and cut into the shape of a church with a large spire. A round clock face has been stuck on-top using white brailled paper. Rosie has then stuck brailled numbers onto the clock face and added hands which actually swivel round!
To the right of the church, a house has been cut out of yellow paper which has been embossed with different patterns to form the roof, building and windows. To the right Rosie has embossed green and blue paper and stuck it onto the picture look like grass and a pond. Over the grass and house she has cut out embossed pale brown paper in the shape of a gate.
Behind the gate is a dark brown brailled tree trunk which stretches the height of the paper. This has been overlayed with leaves in different shades, cut into different shapes and embossed with a variety of patterns. On top of the leaves, Rosie has cut out a bird shape out of black paper and embossed it with braille dots.
The first image shows the whole picture and the second shows a close-up of some of the tree and leaves.
Congratulations to our winners and a big thank you to everyone who put so much time and effort into their entries. We hope you enjoy the full gallery of braille art entries below!
Category 1 – Braille your name (Age: 0 to 10 years)
Logan
‘Logan’ written in edible braille using marshmallows, flying saucers, milky buttons, orange mini eggs and ‘Skittles’.
Leon, age 9
Leon has complex disabilities and global development delay. At the moment he is learning to read his name in braille. The inspiration for his artwork comes from his ability to drink his juice independently. The idea was to use something that was relevant for him and keeping in mind the eco-friendly concept of using recycled materials. Consequently, Leon’s name has been done using the different parts of his juice bottle as seen in the picture.
Suzie, age 2
Suzie has Lebers Congenital Amaurosis, she is registered severely sight impaired blind and is learning pre braille at nursery. For the competition Suzie and her mum searched the house for round things to make the braille dots, arranged them on a round rug and used the braille tiles to check the letters. Objects found include toys, a satsuma, a biscuit and even a toilet roll!
Marcus
Marcus is a self-confessed petrol head! He has used his toy cars to spell out his name in braille. The first photo shows the cars arranged in braille on a checked carpet. The second photo is the same but shows Marcus sitting next to his name smiling.
Josselin
Josselin written in braille using toy cars arranged on a wooden floor.
Oscar, age 8
Oscar written in braille using balls of green and black play doh.
Ka-Mali
Ka-Mali written in braille using a selection of stickers, sequins and wobbly eyes. Ka-Mali is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Fehzaan
Fehzaan written in braille using a selection of hair bands, chocolate coins, rubber shapes, wobbly eyes and sweets. Fehzaan is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Prabjot
Prabjot written in braille using a selection of hair bands, pom poms, clay balls, sequins and stickers. Prabjot is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Ollie
Ollie written in braille using a selection of sequins, beads, rubber shapes and sweets. Ollie is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Nathan
Nathan written in braille using a selection of cotton wool balls, pom poms, foam shapes, chocolate coins, wobbly eyes, rubber shapes and sequins. Nathan is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Aniqa
Aniqa written in braille using a selection of sequins, rubber shapes, chocolate coins, sweets and a wobbly eye. Aniqa is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Riley
Riley written in braille using a selection of sticky velcro, sweets, sequins, chocolate coins and beads. Riley is part of Sandwell Local Authority’s monthly Braille Club for primary aged children.
Rose, age 10
Rose written in braille using lit up tea lights, arranged on grass with a natural frame made from twigs and leaves.
Erin, school year 4
Erin written in braille using different coloured wobbly eyes and with a smiley face at the end.
Ezra, school year 3
Ezra written in braille using different buttons glued onto red and purple paper.
Orla, school year 5
Orla written in braille using slices of carrot placed onto lettuce leaves. There is also a line of sawdust in the photo and a grey and white fluffy rabbit who may well eat the artwork!
Zoe, school year 4
Zoe written in braille using different coloured pom poms stuck onto red paper.
Finnley, age 8
Finnley written in braille using leaf prints and clumps of pom poms, he has named it ‘Finn’s magical flower garden’.
William, age 5
William is in the very early stages of braille. He independently made his art with air-dried clay rolled into little balls and stuck temporarily onto the blue school table.
Jamie
Jamie has used a selection of round buttons to write his name, he has stuck them to white paper using sellotape.
Edward, age 6
Edward used his favourite ‘Plants vs Zombies’ toy figurines to recreate his name in braille.
Category 2 – Braille in pictures! (Age: 11 to 29 years)
Lillie, age 11
Lillie not only created a piece of art, but a fun word puzzle too. Lillie created an embossed image of two guinea pigs as she got two for Christmas. Within the image are braille letters and she has scrambled the letters of the guinea pigs’ Christmas themed names and challenged us to discover them! We think they might be Jingle and Snowflake!
Nathan
Nathan has embossed braille dots to form the shape of an i-phone. The phone has a wire and headphones coming from the bottom. Underneath the images the dots form letters, which look like a digital font, and read IPHONE.
Evie-Mae
Evie-Mae has produced a beautiful image of a butterfly flying from a flower. On the bottom right is a flower made from an oval centre and five petals. There is a wavy line which loops in the middle and leads to the top left of the picture where there is a butterfly. All of this is formed using patterns of braille dots.
Eilidh
Eilidh has embossed braille dots onto brown paper to create the image of a tall ship with sales. The ship has a large base and three tall masts, each with layered sails on. The mast on the right has a flag on the top, with what looks like a pirate’s cross!
Harriet
Harriet has created a braille image of a wood and used cut-out paper shapes to create eight tall trees standing in a row. She has brailled light brown paper for the tree trunks and two different shades of green for the leaves. Brailled all across the trunks and leaves are different names of trees – lime, apple, oak, eucalyptus and palm are just a few that we spotted! The leaves have been stuck on using raised fixers giving the picture a layered effect.
Amy, age 13
Amy has used braille dots to emboss an image of a ship which she has called the HMS VICTA. She has even embossed the ship’s name into the sail!
Scarlett and Eliza
Sisters Scarlett and Eliza sent in a whole series of pictures produced in braille! This first picture depicts a small birthday cake, a teddy bear and a large birthday cake produced in braille dots. The large cake has wavy lines in the middle to represent the filling, within the cake sponges the words ‘happy birthday’ are written in braille. The cake has three candles on the top.
Scarlett and Eliza
This picture is of a flower in a pot and a large heart. Both of these have again been produced using braille dots.
Scarlett and Eliza
This image shows the Eiffel Tower produced using patterns of braille dots.
Scarlett and Eliza
This picture is of a small outline of a heart, an outline of a house, a truck and a candle. All of the images have again been produced using patterns of braille dots.
Scarlett and Eliza
This picture is of a sail boat and a steam train with two carriages made out of braille dots.
Scarlett and Eliza
This Christmassy picture depicts a brailled snowman and two trees, one tree has a star on the top.
Kyla, age 12
Kyla has used braille to emboss an image of a butterfly. The butterfly has wings, a long rectangular body, a circular head and two long antennae, all made using braille figures. Under the image of the butterfly, Kyla has written ‘A butterfly by Kyla age 12’.
Natalie, age 25
Natalie designed a picture showing the word PARALYMPICS with each letter being made from repeating the braille sign for that letter. It also shows the symbol of the Paralympic games, three “agitos” made from the braille symbol for ‘A’. She chose to create this image to show the inclusiveness of the Paralympics – being a paralympian herself it means a lot to her.
We hope you have enjoyed the gallery as much as we have, we’d love to know your comments!
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