Category: Posts of Note
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“Being European, we are more than the sum of our parts” Melanie Berg
Today, I’m delighted to introduce Melanie Berg as the next participant in our European Yarn Community conversations. Melanie is a German designer whose work will, I’m sure, be already very much admired by many of you. Melanie is best known for her shawls, but she also creates gorgeous modern garments, and everything she makes is…
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“For me, Europe means connection”: Yasmin Harper, Laine des Iles
Hello, everyone, it’s Kate here – to introduce a new series of conversations on the KDD blog. I was born in 1973, a year after the Treaty of Accession paved the way for Britain’s entry into the European Union. Both sides of my family are shaped by histories of European immigration, and as a teenager,…
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“disorientation enables new perspectives”: Catherine Mountford
This interview with talented ceramic designer-maker, Catherine Mountford, is brought to you as part of our “chain” celebrating the interconnected work of interesting and inspiring creative women. Catherine was nominated by illustrator / embroiderer, Reena Makwana, whose interview you can read here. Hi Catherine! Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your…
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Introducing People MAKE Glasgow
Hello, it’s Tom here. As those of you who follow the KDD blog will be aware, I’m interested in many kinds of photography. As well as my knitwear and landscape images, I also work on larger photo-documentary projects. The subject I most often return to in my documentary photography is work. I’m especially interested in…
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“I feel like a lot of textiles tell stories”: Reena Makwana
You may remember that a few years ago (thanks to one of this blog’s readers, Maylin) I was interviewed on Woman’s Hour for part of their “chain” series, in which women nominated other women who had inspired them, creating a series of interlinked interviews. I often find myself thinking about the interconnected nature of women’s…
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Drymen Show, 2019
Hello everyone, it’s Tom here popping in to tell you about my latest photographic assignment – the 2019 Drymen Show. In 2017, as part of a project for my darkroom and film photography course at City of Glasgow College I set about documenting – and celebrating – the people, the animals and the work involved…
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in mind
Hello, it’s Kate here. I know many of you have been keeping me in mind. Thank you so much. I’m a little better now, so I felt I should let you know what’s been happening. For the past year, I’ve been really struggling with my bipolar. Most of you probably had no idea I had…
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Thursday I got nothing
Hello everyone, it’s Tom here. I’m dropping by to tell you all about my latest photographic project – Thursday I got nothing: a collection of images inspired by George Mackay Brown’s poem, Beachcomber. Together, these images ask the question, as photographers, if we look closely, do we ever get nothing? George Mackay Brown was one…
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interview
A few of you have asked about my interview with Selvedge magazine, so I thought I’d reproduce it here: Originally published in Selvedge issue 84 (September, 2018)
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Etac and me
One of Handywoman’s central themes is the importance of tools and made-things in everyday life. I have a different, and much more nuanced, understanding of well-designed tools and objects post-stroke simply because my own physical deficits forced me to notice, and to reflect upon, how such objects addressed (or often failed to address) my body…
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grey: not pregnant
Hello, here is my new hair, and my new cardigan. For quite a while it has been obvious (to me at least) that my hair was no longer naturally brown, but grey. I got to a point a few months ago when I was just tired of the continual touching up. What might my hair…
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croft, craft, creativity
One of the many things I really like about the communities and cultures of crofting is their distinctive effect on the way people work. What I mean is this: in towns and cities, jobs tend to become more and more specialised, people do what they do within smaller and smaller categories, individual work occurs in…
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en-able
I was recently having a chat with an academic pal of mine, who is working on a project looking at changes in the hand-knitting industry over the past few decades. She asked me about how I thought the industry had changed, and what I felt the major differences might be in establishing and running a…
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A TEDX talk
If you are in (or near) Edinburgh this Saturday, perhaps you’d like to come and hear me speak at Herriot-Watt’s TEDX event? The focus is “breaking barriers” and I’m going to be talking about brain injury, craft, and creativity alongside some other really interesting speakers. The event is at the Caledonian Hotel on the corner…
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remembering the Tuscania
Killeyan beach is one of my favourite Islay spots, and last year it was also the location in which we photographed one of my all-time favourite designs – the Oa hoody. Killeyan’s spectacular rock stacks and formations overlook the sea. It is a wonderful place for a solitary wander with only the occasional wild goat…
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Circannuam
Many of you will know how much I love the old, twisted oak tree that grows by Loch Lomond at Milarrochy Bay: indeed, I love it so much we named our new yarn after it! Over the past year, Tom has been photographing the tree from exactly the same position, in all seasons and all…