Saturday 25 September
Fair Isle Hall - weaving to form
We spend the morning variously walking the isle and being social. Stu and I say goodbye to young Lowri (the youngest in our host family) who is returning to Glasgow Uni after a fews days home. We’ve known him since he was little, so it was lovely to catch up.
Chris has heard all about wild swimming at the isle’s rockpool and despite it being pretty chilly takes the chance on having a quick swim. The islanders are very concerned for him, but Stu and I have watched him jump into a freezing Norwegian lake as we walked up to Preikestolen ( tour to Stavanger) so we know he’ll be fine.
The afternoon is rehearsal time for Stu, Caroline and Chris, and Open Workshop time for Katherine and myself. It is a workshop on Weaving to Form, and anyone can come along. The workshop has been facilitated by Eileen, who got the word out prior to our arrival and collected attendance numbers for us - and Ian, who then chopped up the right number of weaving backing boards for us from a sheet of ply.
We have 10 participants of all ages (the youngest 9 and the eldest 90 years of age). Katherine gives a brief introduction to the context for the workshop and explains weaving to form. Each chooses a moth for inspiration and sets to hammering their copper nails (copper being kinder to fabric) into their boards ready to set up their warp threads. Once this is done, they start weaving or knotting the weft - using all kinds of scrap fabrics, wools and laces from the stash on the central table.
We’ve allowed 3 hours - at the end of which we have a sharing of the works so far. You can see this is an island of expert crafters - what they have achieved in 3 hours is comparable to a couple of days anywhere else! They have all had an enjoyable, social afternoon of doing something different, a lovely change to the daily tasks - in this tiny island community everyone has to cover 4-5 jobs, just to keep the island functioning. So after the pushing through of the last 18 months they say this is an even greater pleasure than usual!
Several finish their pieces after the workshop, and we exhibit them in the hall on the concert day.
Tonight is the PARTY for Neil’s 70th birthday. We were instructed to pack our dancing shoes…
MANY THANKS TO:
- Jessi Highet https://cargocollective.com/jessihighet
- Southern California Fibershed group for introducing Katherine to this intriguing way of working - and so much more!