Case Studies

"Since pulling the tools together I have spent the majority of the year playing - making lengths of cloth, using firstly 4 shafts and simple patterns, up to 8 shafts and more complex patterns, mixing yarn types to see what would happen. Going with mistakes, seeing what results when you don’t replace a broken warp (or many), watching the fabric grow in a totally arbitrary manner so that only when it is cut off the loom do you have any idea what you have made."

View a video of Fiona's work

Jeanne Rose says her work is “an expression of my impression of the sky and landscapes of Orkney punctuated with the work of people in the past.”

“I am heavily influenced by the marks, rocks and way of life of the Neolithic world, particularly at the Ness of Brodgar and the Ring of Brodgar - I have been walking the Ring of Brodgar daily for nearly a year.”

“During the month of May 2021, I was able to spend an intensive period of time working in the studio and exploring the use of new surfaces such as kaolin, mica and silver leaf, with a particular focus on the latter. I have been able to spend time exploring the possibilities of these new media and the work with silver leaf has been particularly exciting. I have been drawing and painting over the top of the silver leaf, creating surfaces that shift with the light and create an ambiguous sense of depth and reflectiveness.

Funding to research the history of women’s weaving in Orkney and explore these practices, exhibiting in Alnmouth, Northumberland and in the Get Your Tweed Out event at Kirkwall Library.

“The fund meant I was able to invest in my painting and weaving practice, developing a body of work which investigated the role of women as an Observer. I used the cloth that I had woven as a subject in my paintings, and began to question the hierarchy between different crafts.”