I’m delighted to be travelling to the capital later this month to take part once again in CLOTH#19.
Now in its second year, CLOTH#19 is a self funded curated, selling event, held annually in the prestigious Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh for hand made textiles. This is a chance to see my new range of certified Organic denim and Scottish linen as well as some special vintage and tweed cloth pieces. (PART II, 17/18th August)
Vintage prints
Cert Organic Cotton Denim
Shades of denim, indigo and black feature in tops, dresses, skirts and accessories – comfortably cut for your everyday wear, the silhouette is relaxed with all the detail in the necklines, cuffs and pockets.
Tracing the origin of the fabrics I use is fundamental to what I do. This leads me onto my work that I have designed for the Exhibition I am taking part in with BEYOND THE BOTHY Collective at the Pitlochry and Moulin Heritage Centre. This runs in tandem with Perthshire Open Studios and Doors Open Days .
I am inspired by the history of the flax & linen industry that was once so prevalent on my doorstep in Moulin. It is said that the women spun enough linen yarn to pay the rent – yet there is no official documentation of this fact. I am struck by the parallels with today’s textile industry. Many garments are made today by women working long hours and (often) unpaid overtime. I want to highlight the need for transparency and traceability. We should be asking where our clothes come from just as we ask where our food comes from today.
I’ve sourced cloth from the last linen manufacturer in Scotland and I am also using a very rare vegetable dyed softened black Jute, sourced with the kind help of Sandra Thomson of Mcgregor Balfour in Dundee. These heritage cloths will be made into a selection of dresses, coats and accessories which feature hand screen printed cuffs, panels and pocket details.
I’m hoping my work will start a conversation about what we are wearing.
And I even grew my own flax this summer to discover its flowers “like fields of sky”.
My second strand to this years Bothy exhibition is boxes of lovelocks. They had been cut open and removed from the swing bridge over the river Tummel earlier this year and I found them in Pitlochry library where they were stored in the hope that they would be reclaimed. There was a request to store them at the Heritage Centre as a record. These beautiful, heartfelt symbols became a cause of decay – having to be removed to keep the bridge safe. I have developed hand drawn images from my photographs which I then screen printed onto a selection of tea towels, cards and scarves.
These are limited Roobedo collections made especially for CLOTH#19 and Beyond the Bothy Exhibition 2019.
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