STROUD International Textiles (SIT) hosts a day of talks and thought-provoking debate at Stroud College on Saturday, from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

In Designing Craft: Crafting Design, writer Charlotte Abrahams brings together leading hand makers, digital designers, commentators and curators in a series of discussions, seminars and talks.

Is the division between craft and design relevant today?

The panel - Mary Greensted, Chair of the Gloucester Guild of Craftsmen, Grant Gibson, Editor of Crafts and designers Nick Munro and Simon Pengelly – discuss this issue in an hour-long debate chaired by design writer and SIT blogger Charlotte Abrahams

Does craft have to be handmade?

Ceramicist Michael Eden, Harriet Wallace-Jones, one half of innovative industrial textile studio Wallace Sewell, basket maker Susan Early and textile printer Stephen Lewis, co-founder of wallpaper and fabric company Lewis and Wood, put their cases in front of chair John Brewer, chair of the Cheltenham Design Festival and course leader of the BA Graphic Design course at the University of Gloucester.

The symposium also includes maker talks from wallpaper artist Tracy Kendall, textile designer Fay McCaul and design-maker Sebastian Cox, plus the screening of a short film, in which leading names in design reveal what the terms craft and design mean to them.

Tickets, which are inclusive of coffee/tea, an organic lunch and a goodie bag, are available via www.sitselect.org

The event will be filmed by students from the University of Gloucestershire Film Production department and made available online via the SIT festival website, www.sitselect.org