Our Newsletters | Our Linen Stories

Festive Best

Dear Friends, The seasonal image above is of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, featuring a statue of Adam Smith, three hundred years this year since his birth, all surrounded by natures winter greens, and a bauble or two! Today, innovative designers in Scotland offer new ways to an enlightened future, many looking to nature’s roll in drawing them, and us, together. […]

September 2023 Events Bulletin

Flax Futures Dunbar | Exhibition John Muir Birthplace Closing Friday 15 September 2023 Where does flax and linen meet local resilience and climate change? In times past, the capacity to turn this ‘straw into gold’ meant a handsome wage. Today, there is an urgent need for textile design that’s kind to the planet. Moving flax […]

August events bulletin

Flax Futures Dunbar John Muir Birth Place Museum Opening Saturday 5 July 2023 10am to 5pm Where does flax and linen meet local resilience and climate change? Join us to co-design an exhibition and events series across East Lothian. Opening Saturday 5 August, curator John Ennis will offer an introduction to the programme at 11.30am […]

July 2023 Events Diary, on now and next…

Upcoming events during July 2023 Textiles Re-imagined Symposium Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Thursday 6 July 2023 10am – 4pm Join us at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh for a day delivered by Regenerative Textiles Scotland. We welcome Carry Somers, who brings her international experience as a fashion entrepreneur and founder of Fashion Revolution, to join Scottish voices […]

June 2023 – Events Diary

…events diary, on now and next… Thursday 8 June 2023 6 – 8pm Join us at Impact Arts in the heart of Glasgow for some fascinating chat from an expert panel, hearing about the ‘how and why’ of co-design and health in the urban environment. Register here, free to attend, places limited, refreshments from 6pm […]

Nourishing Visions

Dear Friends, A warming welcome from me to you with an invitation to join us for a fascinating set of Journeys in Design unfolding in the months to come. This Spring Newsletter heralds a year of increasing ambition and activity across our three core programmes, expanding our home team and developing new research and exchange […]

Ancient Fibre, New Connections

Dear Friends, With continued thanks to those collaborating in Scotland and beyond, its harvest time… Flax Futures the exceptional potential of Scotland’s ancient fibre crop The Tower at Dr Neils Garden, Duddingston, Edinburgh Exhibition and Events, Tues 6 to Sun 11 September 10am – 4pm Drop in to our latest touring exhibition, which includes new work in […]

Creative Journeys for New Scots

Dear Friends, We’re now in the midst of our Regenerative Textile season, collaborating in Scotland and beyond, sewing and sowing together. Read on for more… Creative Journeys for New Scots: Twilight Talk Mossvale Centre, Paisley Thursday 23 June 6-8pm. Reserve your free Twilight Talk ticket here Our speakers celebrate the design journeys of those finding a new home […]

Fibres & Futures

Dear Friends, It’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, heralding a season of regenerative journeys, within Scotland and beyond borders. Towards a Fibreshed for Scotland The global Fibreshed network supports ‘regenerative textiles’ – local materials and methods of production that walk more lightly on the earth, aiming to enhance rather than exploit. We’re facilitating a discussion in Scotland read more here 1m2flaxScotland Plant a […]

Designing Out and About

We’re Talking Making Well with Heritage This Thursday 16 September 6.30-8pm, Old Kirk Kirkcaldy Register Here Heritage can reach in to enrich our lives as individuals and community. After our 80 strong international online Roundtable last week, please join us this week in person for the latest of our Twilight Talks about Design. With a keynote from Christine May of […]

Think Global, Grow Local

Dear Friends, This September you are invited to enjoy Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival. Our Linen Stories Festival Exhibition Open Fridays to Sundays, 10am – 4pm, 3-19 September This is a truly site specific display of art works, artefacts, crafted items and contemporary design, set within a repurposed Kirkcaldy Linen Factory. We are growing flax in […]

Rejoining

Dear Friends Scotland’s capital is buzzing once again as Edinburgh Festivals take over, with events online and on the ground. Next month, our Journeys in Design have Festivals in mind too. Working with the Scottish Civic Trust and communities throughout Fife, Journeys in Design is delighted to bring you Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival. From our Festival Hub and […]

by Living we Learn

Dear Friends A big thank you to each of our experts offering their insights along a new walking route in Edinburgh celebrating contemporary design initiatives in the capital and introducing our new programme, Concrete Designs to Thrive. Artists, Archivists, Activists and Designers help bring focus to our themes: Meet, Nest, Learn and Pray, essential acts of life that […]

by Leaves we Live

Today how many people think twice about a leaf? Yet the leaf is the chief product and phenomenon of life. Dear Friends, Concrete Designs to Thrive: we’re delighted to introduce our new programme with an online Concrete Walk by Design in Edinburgh starting next week. Concrete Designs to Thrive takes the world’s most ubiquitous product as material focus. […]

Designing Future Heritage

Dear Friends, It’s International Museums Day, a day to celebrate in Scotland as many of our own re-open this week. Our Museums are an extraordinary resource, a brilliant glimpse at design past and present, stories about ourselves to hold on to in tricky times. They re-open afresh, co-designing as culture hubs across the country. […]

Communicating on Climate Change

Dear Friends World Earth Day is upon us and this year strikes a special chord as more and more people unite in local movements to act in collaboration with the planet. On an international level, the US President brings world leaders together today in a call to action ahead of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Summit November […]

Necessity, mother of Collaboration

Dear Friends In the wake of the vernal equinox, spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere, and we’re ready for action with design in mind. It’s been a winter of listening and learning at Journeys HQ, witnessing and contributing to collaboration for change and developing our programmes with design and community at heart. Prescribe Culture […]

Towards a New Together

Dear Friends As winter solstice approaches in the northern hemisphere, we can take time to think about the year that’s been and our hopes for the new year to come. Lessons learned from lockdown left a burning desire to move forward, more fairly and in tandem with nature and our planet. Communities threatened by restriction triumphed through resilient adaptation, finding new ways to […]

Creating Together

Dear Friends Since inception, our Journeys together have used the prism of Design to make real our core values of well-being, sustainability and community. This year has seen these values find new focus for all of us as we grapple with the pressing issues of the day and our future. JOURNEYS IN DESIGN Taking our lead […]

Festival Faces

Dear Friends You find us fresh from our Salvage Scotland 2020 maiden voyage, a festival of maritime initiatives platforming creative talent from Scotland’s coastal communities and featuring seven inspiring Scottish practitioners across art, craft, design and industry. Unlock our Treasure Trove Exhibition Enjoy our fascinating Creative Encounters We continue to gather Our Linen Stories this year too, finding creative […]

From Scotland on St Andrews Day

Journeys in Design is a series of exhibitions and events platforming Scottish Design in an International Context. Our featured Designs find context within the wider fields of well-being, sustainability, income generation and industrial heritage. We platform Design in Scotland through display and discussion, visiting diverse locations, collaborating with talented people and engaging with countries and […]

Sail Soil Soul 15 July 2020

Dear Friends, Delighted to offer news of further Journeys in Design this summer and autumn: Salvage Scotland, Flax Fields and Making Millie. Set sail with us around Scotland #salvageScotland ‘Salvage Scotland: a maritime SOS’ is a voyage around Scotland’s coastal communities exploring sustainable design and circular economies at sea. Launching in the environs of our […]

Wish you were here … 10 June 2020

Dear Friends In former days as a family doctor, I often invoked an image of waves on the shoreline to help illustrate the reality of life’s ‘ebb and flow’. I found folk less questioning when ‘in the flow’, cracking on with life, but sometimes in need of reassurance when energy seemed to have ebbed away; […]

Chasing Rainbows 6 May 2020

Dear Friends, I’m delighted to open the book on a special chapter for Journeys in Design this month, engaging cultures of hope and fellowship, home and away, called Chasing Rainbows. Over the next four weeks you are invited to join us online Thursdays at Three, Fridays at Four and Sundays at One, for design discussions, […]

Making Well 22 April 2020

Dear Friends, I hope this email finds you safe and sound. As we rework our programme for 2020, the Journeys in Design team invites you to join us at home this month, ours and yours. Try a little Wild Weaving I hope you can join me at home in Edinburgh as I put my Wild […]

Sharing Culture by Design 8 January 2020

Dear Friends Whatever challenges communities may face in this new decade, our cultural ties persist, those shared elements of life that enrich people across the world despite differences in language and creed. Design in its many forms can illustrate and enhance these links. Our image this month is a linen panel, embroidered by a talented team from Veere […]

Fortan Leat 2020 19 December 2019

Dear Friends Sending you a Gaelic greeting of good fortune and encouragement as this year draws to a close. Our image is of a constructed textile called ‘A New Union, Europe’ created by artist Akshata Mokashi specially for Our Linen Stories. It draws on one of Europe’s founding civilisations and the Greek notion of khaos, that state preceding the […]

Full Circle on Design 7 November 2019

How can design and our use of materials help us walk more lightly on the Earth? It’s a pressing question and an increasing challenge for us all. Just a week today until the latest of our Twilight Talks about Design ,this time exploring Design in a Sustainable Scotland. We’ve brought together a panel of four leading speakers, each bringing […]

Design Regeneration Scotland 31 October 2019

Dear Friends Scotland is a small nation on the periphery of a major trading block and at an exciting time in a wider world alive to change. As visitors enjoying the Creating Industry Panel of our current exhibition will have confirmed, Scotland came late but lustily to the Industrial Revolution, partly on the back of political union and […]

And the winner is… 2 October 2019

Dear Friends, A very big thank you to all our exhibitors and especially to Exhibition designer Lorna Brown of Blessed Unrest and installation team, Eric Schumacher and Oisin Gallagher: Our Linen Stories are up and open and we keenly welcome you along to Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh. Our Events programme including Walks by Design and […]

The Great Exhibitions book by John Allwood. Pub. Exhibition Consultants Ltd.

Capital Stories 11 September 2019

Dear Friends, Next week we’re opening up Our Linen Story books in Edinburgh with a new exhibition and events series in Scotland’s capital. Whether you are local or planning a visit, we have lots in store over the next five months of Our Linen Stories Exhibition at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh: drop us a personal email and perhaps we […]

Building Sights 27 June 2019

Dear Friends We are delighted to confirm Our Linen Stories Exhibition at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh will run 16 September 2019 to 25 January 2020, the culmination of two years participatory research and development. Details of our lively allied Events series is published next month including new talks, walks and workshops. Y/Our Linen Stories 2019 series […]

Creative Energies in Scotland 23 May 2019

Dear Friends, Y/Our Linen Stories Revisit Tour continues after weekends in Selkirk (Nurturing Design Talent), Lisburn (celebrating Ulster Scots Links) and Grantown (platforming Materials Innovation and Sustainable Designs), coming back this weekend with a Thank You to Leith where we started just over one year ago. Inspired by our host venues and drawing on the many stories you […]

Many thanks in May 2 May 2019

Dear Friends, ‘Material Culture’ is a term describing the objects that contribute to our sense of self and community. With Our Linen Stories from Journeys in Design we are exploring part of Scotland’s Material Culture, leading this with some stunning Contemporary Design. More than 1200 people attended Our Linen Stories Tour in 2018 and through May and June this year […]

Flax Chair, made of Felted Flax and PLA Fibres

Euro Visions 13 March 2019

Journeys in Design has internationalism at its heart, developing strong links with Europe since our inception. The Netherlands has been a key partner throughout our journey, a small nation that nurtures and promotes Design in evidently generative and generous ways. In our inaugural year, operating at Gayfield Creative Spaces, we brought works by Piet Hein […]

Designs to Thrive 24 January 2019

Reaching out to forge meaningful collaboration is at the core of the Journeys in Design programme and this year we progress alliances with European neighbours through Our Linen Stories and continue to research for our new Material World focus on Concrete. Our Linen Stories are told regularly on Facebook and throughout this year you can spot new Website entries […]

Cultural Traffic Scotland 17 October 2018

Thank you to the fine people of Lisburn for engaging so heartily during our time in N.Ireland. As ever, you can keep abreast of our latest linen stories by following our Facebook page and read our past newsletters on Our Website. Next week our final tour stop this year is in the north of Scotland at The Highland […]

Routes to a Linen Legacy 19 September 2018

Journeys in Design is developing a local legacy project in each Scottish town on Our Linen Stories tour and we look forward to reporting more over the winter months. Fife is a fascinating county full of a rich trading and industrial heritage relating to flax and linen and as your curator’s recent travels reveal, alive […]

Our Linen Library 30 August 2018

With each exhibition stop on Our Linen Stories Tour we have included books of relevance to each locality in addition to the key texts presented in the core exhibition. In Fife we are delighted to feature three books: ‘Duel’, ‘From Hill to Sea’ and ‘Kirkcaldy Harbour’. ‘Duel‘ (Canongate 2005) is a riveting account by James Landale, of the […]

The Flax Fields of Fife 15 August 2018

Dear Friends, It’s a fond farewell to The Borders and the fine folk of Selkirk with many thanks to colleagues at The Haining and in the Borders museums, galleries and businesses for their collaboration. Particular thanks to those who have added to our journey with their own Linen Story, building our intriguing and engaging Borders Linen […]

Hidden Treasures 11 July 2018

As Scotland basks in the full sun of summer, Our Linen Stories Tour continues this month as we bring the exhibition to The Scottish Borders: Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th July 10am to 4pm daily. Free to enter and all welcome. At each tour stop we deepen Our Linen Stories themes, examining how design relates to specific […]

Creative Homelands 1 June 2018

Our Linen Stories begin with tales of persecution and displacement in eighteenth century Europe with reflections on the benefits of emigration for creative industry in Scotland, Ireland and Holland. The Huguenots fled France and transferred their craft and commercial technologies to receptive new homelands elsewhere, including to Scotland: our linen trade was a massive beneficiary. In Edinburgh, the […]

Words of Wisdom 15 May 2018

It is with real sadness and respect that we acknowledge the passing of Jim Adams this weekend in Edinburgh. Jim and Betta Adams have been supporters of our journey since inception in 2014. Wherever our journey led, Jim was never without pertinent facts at his fingertips, taking joy in their sharing: we’ll miss his erudition […]

Stories and Songs 10 May 2018

Dear Friends, Thanks to all who made our Opening Weekend so special: over 200 folk enjoyed the sunshine on Leith and the fun inside Custom Lane. Particular thanks go to Deirdre Brock, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith who ‘cut the linen ribbon’ at noon on Saturday 5 May to launch Our Tour. Deirdre also […]

Talking of Design 26 April 2018

Dear Friends, As an integral part of Our Linen Stories we invite you to three intriguing talks about Design taking place this May at Custom Lane in Leith. We are delighted to announce today that this season our talks are free to attend as a result of the generous support of our new industry sponsor: Creative Composites. Whether you’re […]

Weaving Well-Being 10 April 2018

Journeys in Design recognises the power of Creative energy in helping all of us to heal and thrive. The academic literature across several disciplines testifies to the benefits of Creative endeavour – easing the troubled mind through focus away from self and in fellowship with others. We continue to support and collaborate with several groups […]

Our Linen Stories 5 April 2018

Dear Friends, We are delighted to introduce Our Linen Stories, a material adventure from historical context to contemporary product, highlighting the work of twelve talented designers at home and abroad and celebrating this most European of all the sustainable textiles. As part of the new Journeys in Design: Material World series, curated by John Ennis, Our Linen […]

Welcome to Journeys in Design

Dear Friends, Delighted to welcome you to our newly evolving programme of exhibitions and events called Journeys in Design. More details to follow soon: we are launching our new Material World series in May 2018 with Our Linen Stories (http://www.ourlinenstories.com) ; plans are in place for a new Making Well series launching in October; finally, […]