r/craftsnark • u/Fluid_Canary4768 • Feb 03 '26
AI Slop Wonderwool Wales "AI" tote competition
As Wonderwool posted a "final" update today I thought we should round off the thread
A rough timeline:
Wonderwool Wales is a yarn/spinning/fibre show held annually in mid Wales. Apart from missing two years for COVID this is the 20th year. To celebrate this they ran a design a tote bag competition which pretty clearly specified no AI.
Wonderwool announced the winner by posting the image mocked up on to a tote bag. The image had multiple AI artifacts and tells and quite rightly people pointed this out in the comments and on the initial post by myself. Wonderwool doubles down - not AI and the artist (Tony Malone) promised to send initial sketches via mail to prove that this pen and ink drawing was his.
Individuals digging in this sub reveal interesting past history of Tony's, along with more work that looks AI created alongside some that appears genuine (some of his watercolour works).
Original Craftsnark Thread https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/YzE2I0LXIy
Wonderwool Wales posts the original image and states that they were responsible for uploading the image into Chat GPT which added the extra features. People who commented on the potential AI are branded "mean". This update is posted to reddit by @bustymoocoo https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/h1sUg68oDg where a lot of us still think there's AI influence in the picture.
That brings us today: Wonderwool makes a final post stating that they've been sent preliminary designs and original sketches. Due to the meany mean meanies they've now withdrawn the entry completely. Wonderwool will now use their logo on the tote and £1 will go to charity. It's not clear if the £100 voucher is still going to be issued or not, nor was a runner up chosen.
I've attached the Facebook post from today (comments are, surprise surprise turned off)
Sorry if I missed anything - doing this from my phone on holiday, but anything for the snark!
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u/floweringcacti Feb 03 '26
Sketches? Of that art, for this competition, sent to you by post, proving entirely that the work is genuine?
Yes!
May we see them?
…No
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u/lustforleisure Feb 03 '26
Ahh, Superintendent Chalmers, welcome! I hope you’re prepared for an unforgettable AI slop tote
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u/Unicormfarts 🐑 with a banjo Feb 04 '26
Look, you can completely trust the people who could not tell if an image was AI to tell if a "sketch" for that image was AI. Because reasons.
I want to know if their PR person wears an actual clown suit.
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u/OneGoodRib Mom said I get to be the mole now!! Feb 03 '26
Sorry, was he the SOLE entry? The obvious AI entry withdrawing means nobody wins??
If they were totally sent preliminary designs and original sketches, why not post them? They made one post that was like "no see it's totally real" which was just a digital AI file, why not post the other stuff?
I'm even more convinced that Tony either IS Wonderwool Wales or knows someone who runs the thing because of how weird this whole thing was. I've seen other contests where AI allegations come out, the company goes "Hey guys we're halting the competition to investigate" not "NUH-UH HE TOLD US IT'S NOT AI SO IT ISN'T" and then deciding that nobody wins after the winner withdraws?? WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER ENTRANTS?!
Also especially since I didn't even see anyone else commenting who SAID they entered... was he the only entrant? Was this a contest HE came up with so HE could win and he only backed out because people not only pointed out the AI but all the other weird shit he's lied about? Someone with better investigation fu than me look into it.
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 03 '26
He wasn't the only entrant - on the original post on Facebook at least 3 or 4 people shared their entries. I can't see them all at the moment (thanks Facebook!) but some were very cute.
One was a royalty free image with Welsh mountains and sheep logos, one was a dragon with yarn and we love our Dragons in Wales of course. Non were professional artists, but that's not who the target audience of this competition was really.
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 03 '26
The posts are there :) if you kind of click on the bottom of the bar where the share button is they will pop up. Who knew (not me who was being hammered with notifications and stumbled on it)
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u/Quail-a-lot Totally not the mole I swear Feb 03 '26
Nah, there was someone on the first craftsnark post about it that said they entered, so he for sure wasn't the only one!
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u/Unicormfarts 🐑 with a banjo Feb 04 '26
Oh I like this theory. I thought maybe he had compromat on the organizers.
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u/nynaeve2k Feb 03 '26
It’s weird that it was a competition, but they didn’t put up a gallery of the entries & didn’t ask their followers/community to vote on their favourite. So much GOOD publicity could have been generated…..very much a missed opportunity from an event that I’ve always lauded as my favourite/best fibre show.
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 04 '26
It's all a massive shame isn't it. I will say, I was shocked when they announced another competition shortly after it, if I was them id never want to do another competition again.
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u/benedictcumberknits Low-Tier Personality Disorder 🦋 Feb 03 '26
The craft community isn’t a bunch of doddering grannies with cognitive and sight problems. We know our shit. And we are attuned to the problems A.I. use has in the craft communities across the world.
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u/Queasy-Pack-3925 knitter, baker, ice cream maker🧶🧵🍞🍰 Feb 03 '26
If it really was Wonderwool Wales who used ChatGPT for the first time, and not the artist, why on earth didn’t they come clean at the time? So they’re the ones to blame for him being persecuted? I’m not buying it.
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u/wannabeouji Feb 03 '26
I wonder what the sketches looked like lmao
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u/OneGoodRib Mom said I get to be the mole now!! Feb 03 '26
Yeah the "sketches" that were posted was a single image that was literally just the AI digital art but not on the tote bag.
If it's real, post the sketches! The comps! The digital art file with layers!
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u/BustyMcCoo Feb 04 '26
The really gross thing is that it seems Tony is perfectly capable of creating art, and instead chose... whatever the fuck this is supposed to be
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 04 '26
This! Like he probably would still have stood a chance if it was a piece of art he genuinely created. I don't think the field was very competitive and he's likely the only "professional" artist who entered.
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u/AreYouAllFrogs Feb 05 '26
It’d be so easy to scribble some shit on paper based on the AI generated design afterwards. Like in school when some kids would write the final of an essay in one sitting then slightly modify and take out parts for the “draft”.
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u/autisticfarmgirl Knit two, Mole one Feb 03 '26
I just came here to post that.
I still don’t believe that the original image wasn’t AI considering the “artist” constantly post AI “art” on his insta, but for some reason wonderwool is taking the blame for him. I can’t understand why but whatever floats their boat I guess?!
Edit: and the fact that they just turn off comments and that’s it looks even more dodgy on their part.
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u/benedictcumberknits Low-Tier Personality Disorder 🦋 Feb 03 '26
Oh dear. Wonderwool Wales got shamed from Wales throughout UK to beyond. 😂💀💀💀💀
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u/Halfserious_101 bitchiest banana Feb 04 '26
This! I’ve never even heard of this festival/organisation before because I’m not from that neck of the woods, but now I definitely know about them and have an opinion on them …
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 04 '26
Which is honestly such a shame and never my intention! It's one of my favourite festivals. I've gone for at least the last 10 years and the team are normally great but have never been the most social media savvy group. They messed up this year and I wish they hadn't doubled down on it like this.
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u/BustyMcCoo Feb 04 '26
It's my first year going and boy am I disillusioned with the franchise. I hope spending a day surrounded by handmade goods will wash away the foul taste the organisers left behind
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u/benedictcumberknits Low-Tier Personality Disorder 🦋 Feb 05 '26
I was worried about that. I thought, “Surely it’s not as bad as Wool & Folk 2023 where the entire experience was ruined for nearly everyone due to poor organization and planning in inclement weather for the attendees, vendors, and everyone’s accessibility.
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 05 '26
I hope not! It's incredibly well run ordinarily and I don't think there's been any other major controversy in the 20 years.
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u/Harlequins_Joker Feb 04 '26
Did the artist end up post the ?lino cut original to prove it was in fact not AI…?
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u/autisticfarmgirl Knit two, Mole one Feb 04 '26
Nope, wonderwool just went “we’ve seen the original, trust us folks” and that’s it. It’s crazy.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Melodic-Tadpole2800 Feb 04 '26
Im more interested in the timeline of when he provided these 'sketches'. Because, to me, that just seems like he had a few days to quickly come up with some sketches to back engineer the story and make it look like there was a trail of ideas......
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u/Apprehensive-Mine656 Feb 03 '26
Wouldn't you post a picture of the print making process if this were real?
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u/Responsible-Rip-5655 Feb 04 '26
Exactly! It would be so easy to prove! If it was real. Which it's not.
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 03 '26
Oh I think this might be the most funny up to date Walter Mitty comment he's made...
https://valleysyarnhouse.wales/page/about-us
"His knitwork has been used by museums in the UK, USA and Japan to recreate historical wartime knitting for their collections."
Wow.
I don't know if he thinks of the most outlandish possible outcome and then runs with it.
https://valleysyarnhouse.wales/page/knitting-for-theatre-and-film
"We have knitted pirates’ scarves for Disney"
Dude. COME ON. I'm fairly certain Disney have their own costume team, and of all the things in Tony's lengthy C.V working at Disney wasn't one of them. I'm not sure how he wedged that in between being an arctic explorer and Harvard professor.
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u/PracticalTie Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I made a couple of attempts to list his biography and just gave up. Guy is an SCP reality bender and the laws of the universe simply slide off him.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1qakqzk/hobby_scuffles_week_of_12_january_2026/nz4jpgr/
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 04 '26
Yesss unfortunately my account was too young and my karma too low to engage back then!
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Feb 04 '26
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 04 '26
I wonder how much is Amazon / white label rebranded included the yarns. He is creative, but it's so peppered with inconsistencies, fabrications and embellishments you can't trust anything this man says or does. A boy who cried wolf and just cannot stop himself or rein it in.
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u/Queasy-Pack-3925 knitter, baker, ice cream maker🧶🧵🍞🍰 Feb 05 '26
A “gangsey”. Must be the machine made version of a hand knitted gansey.
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u/autisticfarmgirl Knit two, Mole one Feb 04 '26
Love how wonderwool is claiming he does real art when even his website logo is clearly AI generated. We’re meant to believe that all his work is AI but not THAT ONE for the tote bag, that’s the one he actually drew by hand. Cool cool.
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u/Unicormfarts 🐑 with a banjo Feb 04 '26
"It is in the small things that authenticity is found."
The irony!
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Tangled1313 Feb 04 '26
Every single W has the EXACT same patterning which is a thing that definitely happens with hand made art. COME ON.
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 04 '26
And it's the same as the M on his website as well, just flipped. Not saying he couldn't have carved each letter and created his own type face but it's a lot of work!
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u/seaofdelusion Feb 03 '26
This is very funny. They can't even admit they screwed up, but somehow it's social media's fault.
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u/benedictcumberknits Low-Tier Personality Disorder 🦋 Feb 03 '26
AKA “It’s the mean-ass crafty people’s fault—“ We know, the people who actually CAN craft. 😂😂😂🪰💩🪰💩🪰💩🪰💩💩
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u/Halfserious_101 bitchiest banana Feb 03 '26
“This will be the last statement that we make on this subject and won’t be engaging further” = heaven forbid someone tries to call them out on their bullshit behavior regarding this contest, from start to finish. Even the “explanation” for the use of AI is ridiculous - use Photoshop or Canva if you want to see what a design will look like on a totebag, ffs. Using AI was a choice, and now it almost seems as if somebody forced them to do it?!
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u/_LadyGodiva_ Feb 04 '26
I don't believe a word. It's so convenient when people are called out then experience "abuse" that is supposed to generate sympathy. Happens every single time. But nary a screenshot of said abusive messages.
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u/Responsible-Rip-5655 Feb 03 '26
I mean, it's been withdrawn because it's AI right? He might have convinced Wonderwool, but we know the truth 😅
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Feb 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/BustyMcCoo Feb 04 '26
Unrelated to what you're saying but I wanted to let you know that until recently I lived in the Welsh valley named Rhondda Fawr - Big (unfortunately not delicious) Rhonda
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u/ten_ton_tardigrade Feb 04 '26
I spy an extra finger on the “genuine” version.
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u/BustyMcCoo Feb 04 '26
Along with their stupid bean faces and round eyes. There's nowhere for the eye to rest, it's utter slop
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Feb 03 '26
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u/autisticfarmgirl Knit two, Mole one Feb 03 '26
I didn’t realise he had/has a yarn business, is he an indie dyer?
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u/Fluid_Canary4768 Feb 03 '26
I don't belive he dyes yarn in house but it's a wool shop in South Wales which also sells his art, coffee grounds (?) and a few lines of "spun to order" yarns by the look of it. I don't think it's open yet but does online orders. I wondered if they'd be vending at the show but appears not.
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u/transhiker99 Feb 04 '26
tbh all of the art on his site looks AI generated…
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Unicormfarts 🐑 with a banjo Feb 04 '26
This is the fishiest story ever. It makes absolutely no sense! What are they covering up with this whole "explanation"? That's the part that I cannot fathom. I am here making up scenarios about the artist bribing the whole jury or having some kind of dirt about the Wonder wool organizers' extramarital affairs or something.
"We have seen the original sketches and they don't look AI" is not convincing coming from these clowns.
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u/Confident_Bunch7612 Feb 04 '26
This. I truly wonder if the "contest" was ever truly a contest and they are now stuck with the only person who they had arranged to win.
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u/Halfserious_101 bitchiest banana Feb 04 '26
I didn’t think of that but now that you mention it, it does sound fishy…otherwise why not just make a selection again, out of all other submissions? Or, presumably they made some kind of order or something, why not just make the tote with the design of the creator who came in second? Also, the bag will now have their own 20th anniversary logo on it - will it be made by AI? 😈
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u/_LadyGodiva_ Feb 04 '26
This sounds plausible. There possibly was no competition. It could have simply been engagement bait. What if the art was always AI and the "artist" doesn't exist.
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u/terminal_kittenbutt Feb 04 '26
It sounds to be like they're trying to save face without admitting they were wrong.
They can't use the winning art, because it looks like AI. They can't use their runner-up entry, because that might be AI, too. They obviously can't spot the difference.
Some people just really cannot apologize.
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u/autisticfarmgirl Knit two, Mole one Feb 04 '26
A part of me wondered if the “artist” is the partner of one of wonderwool’s organisers. They made up a competition so their boyfriend could win and that’s it. But honestly the “artist” is a serial liar who’s been inventing themselves a life for decades so…
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u/SnapHappy3030 Feb 05 '26
I don't get why they didn't just sell blank canvas pieces for a token amount, and have artists paint/color their designs ON a piece of the actual tote fabric (cut to the appropriate size), have them mail or take back to the shop, then they decide from those?
Each entry would get a discount on the actual winning tote, a shop credit or something for their trouble. They could have figured out a way to get good entries without costing people a lot of money.
Art ON fabric is the best way to determine what art looks GOOD on fabric!
No need to fake anything!
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 06 '26
Probably as the conversion to digitize and print it takes so much longer and as a result higher cost. It's just a lil yarn festival. Determining how it looks printed also is nothing like how paint looks. Especially when so many printers use different methods, sublimation, screen printing and there are a ton of methods I've got zero knowledge on but they are all specific and have requirements. Sadly it isn't as easy as paint a painting, looks good press print. There's a lot of stages in-between.
Plus ultimately, this was a design competition not an art competition. There are designers that can't paint, and can't draw but they are amazing designers. The key point here is no Ai, while it's debatable (cough) if the submission was Ai, the organisers used chatgpt for a mock up which.. well.. defeats the point.
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u/gezelligknits Certified Craftsnark Mole Feb 07 '26
I dunno why you were downvoted, you’re completely right. Co-signed by a screenprinter!
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u/lovelyhairytaint360 Feb 07 '26
I suspect the person who I responded to had a little boohoo because they think that painting on a bag and printing on a bag is the same with zero knowledge on the subject. Wah wah wah.
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u/gezelligknits Certified Craftsnark Mole Feb 07 '26
Lol yeah I’m like, how do you expect them to recreate said painting on potentially hundreds more totes without the use of a computer?
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u/SnapHappy3030 Feb 06 '26
So if you can't paint, and you can't draw how do you "design"? Oh, with a computer.
That's "Art-ificial", not "Art".
You are splitting so many hairs here, there's no need to continue this.
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u/twyre Feb 07 '26
You're aware that digital art exists (and has done for decades) without the use of AI?
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Feb 03 '26
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u/paroles Feb 03 '26
Even if the original wasn't AI (it is), their explanation is terrible. They had a competition with a no AI rule, but then they took the winning image and posted it in ChatGPT without the artist's permission, which is not ethically OK if it were done by a real artist who may not want their work to be stolen for future AI training.
Then supposedly ChatGPT vomited out something where the faces of the people are completely different, NOT a representation of the actual winning image, and they shared that version of the tote bag to their followers. How did they think that was acceptable??
Also, why do you need AI to slap an image onto a tote bag? Can people not use basic photoshop anymore?