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Newtonmore, October 2018

Linen stories from the Highlands at the Highland Folk Museum

Our 2018 linen journey through Scotland was concluded with a week of exhibition and events at The Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore.

We worked with the wonderful curatorial team at this ethnographic open air museum, unique in Scotland and with colleagues from the University of the Highlands and Islands, we supplemented our core exhibition of contemporary design from Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands with events reaching out into Highland communities with a past and present focus on flax fibre and linen cloth.

A’ fosgladh gach latha bho 11m gu 4f, Diluain 22 Dàmhair gu Didòmhnaich 28 Dàmhair, tha cuairt Ar Sgeulachd Anairt 2018 tro Alba a’ crìochnachadh le seachdain de thaisbeanadh is de thachartasan aig Taigh-tasgaidh Sluagh na Gàidhealtachd ann am Baile Ùr an t-Slèibh. Ag obrachadh leis an t-sàr sgioba tasgaidh aig an taigh-tasgaidh eitneografaig seo air a’ bhlàr a-muigh, agus le co-obraichean bho Oilthigh na Gàidhealtachd agus nan Eilean, tha sinn a’ cur ri ar prìomh thaisbeanadh de dhealbhadh co-aimsireil à Alba, Èirinn agus an Òlaind. Bidh na tachartasan a’ ruigsinn a-mach gu coimhearsnachdan na Gàidhealtachd agus a’ toirt sùil air snàithleach lìn agus aodach anairt san latha a dh’fhalbh agus san latha a th’ ann. Thèid clàr-ama iomlan nan tachartasan againn fhoillseachadh sna làithean air thoiseach agus tha sinn a’ dèanamh fiughair ri fàilte a chur oirbh. Tha an taisbeanadh agus na tachartasan an-asgaidh agus fosgailte do na h-uile.

Events at this location

Highland Linen Journeys in Design: Curator’s Talks

An informal 30 minute presentation and discussion

‘Our Linen Stories’ Curator John Ennis is originally from N.Ireland and has been resident in Scotland since 1985. Stepping aside from a career in medicine in 2012 to pursue a passion for design, this was John’s first exhibition tour and in these informal talks, he offered a guide to the Highland Exhibition and reflected on his experiences producing the exhibitions and events that have formed Our Linen Stories to date.

John noted, ‘Its a honour to be working with colleagues at Highland Folk Museum and University of Highlands and Islands. I hope together we are offering something intriguing and rewarding for local and international visitors alike.’

To join us in one of our upcoming events, please press here.

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Preparing the Flax (a’ Grèidheadh an Lìn’)

In October 2018, Maureen Hammond and her colleagues from the University of the Highlands and Islands Centre for History offered us a demonstration of flax was prepared back in eighteenth century Badenoch.

To join us in one of our upcoming events, please press here.

 

‘The Working of Cloth’ by Textile Artist Linda Green at Iona Gallery, Kingussie

The Working of Cloth

‘As a volunteer gardener near Duddingston Loch in Edinburgh I was intrigued to find that Duddingston had been a weaving village which in times past produced a rough cloth known as Duddingston Hardings. I was curious to find out more about this fabric and discovered that it was linen made from local flax which was retted in the loch, before being spun into a utility fabric.  Given its lowly status, no samples of this cloth have survived to the present day. I was inspired by the story of this forgotten cloth and resolved to make some simple drafts of plain weaving where the fibres are highlighted as opposed to the structure of the cloth. I harvested plants from the Loch and used these fibres to make thread to weave my own cloth. In building my fabric, I counted the ‘picks’ as the weft passed back and forth while the repetition of stripes made me think of time passing and a tentative link to Duddingston Loch.

My piece entitled The Working of Cloth is a tribute to the linen that was once made so close to where I live. The individual hand-woven samples demonstrate functionality while others simply illustrate the inherent beauty of woven fabric. Below the line of fabric samples and running in parallel with it, are drawings which were inspired by the process of weaving and the journey of the thread.’

To join us in one of our upcoming events, please press here.

 

Linda Green, May 2018

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