Harris Tweed: From The Land

From the land comes the cloth.


Pre Script: Don't bother reading all my ravings, just come to the Lakes for Easter and see this!

Another thoroughly inspiring exhibition at Rheged by Ian Lawson! Last year I went to his Herdwick exhibition and, today, I came to his Harris exhibition for the second time.

If you know the Outer Hebrides, if you like spinning and weaving or if you are a keen photographer you will love this exhibition!

The first time I visited was with The Mate who had married and built a home on Lewis, worked in the weaving industry up there and is now a pro photographer. He enjoyed looking round!

Today I came with The Man who has visited the Isles, been brought up in a household where using natural fabric dyes, spinning and weaving were commonplace activities. He was very knowledgeable about photography and image printing long before I was so he enjoyed it too.

Me? Well, I've been as far north as Loch Ness, I had a plastic loom as a child, I have an Ashford spinning wheel on the landing which I've never used, and you know where I am with photography!

If you can bear with me, the bit of the exhibition I really loved was this wall. Each pane was a compilation of a landscape/local life shot and a yarn/fabric shot. It has blown me away both times. I did this sort of thing at collage back in the 70s, to teach junior school children to look at the colour composition of things.

Now these images (see extras) I'm talking about, not only does the photo of the yarn match the photo of the landscape, but the way the yarn is laid for the "still life" reflects the landscape, too!

See it for yourself, it's on until May 15th.