I was excited to be taking part in Fringe By The Sea 2021 and decided to explore the harbour in North Berwick and some of the surrounding East Lothian coast for my inspiration. North Berwick has an active Lifeboat station and the beautiful colours of RNLI were a big draw to me.
Trying to capture the ropes found around the harbour and within the lobster cages was important to my designs going forward. The twill weave structure I finally adopted for this collection achieved this and also helped me to create a feeling of movement akin to ripples on the blue Sea Breeze fabric.
I was lucky enough to discover very local shepherdess at Lammermuir Wool when attending Perth Wool Festival a few years ago. I had been hoping to use some of her Shetland wool in my weaving and found this the perfect project to include some hyper-local yarn. The natural warp was therefore wound with wool from Lammermuir Wool and then contrasted in the weft with bright hues of worsted wool from Weaver’s Bazaar!
The Harbour Scenes collection was expertly transformed into make-up bags, pencil cases and purses by Kalopsia Collective, a micro-manufacturer and Edinburgh-based social enterprise.
It was lovely to come full circle in August ’21 when I returned to Fringe By The Sea to share my weaving inspired by those very surroundings. After the difficulties of Covid 19 it was delightful to be able to see the town and Harbour bustling again.
This collection was shown at:
Mactaggart and Mickel’s Makers Market, Fringe By The Sea, 2021
Cloth#21 at The Dovecot Studio, Edinburgh
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