The Orkney Ferry

Orkney has always been a place I hold dear and when we were planning a Makers’ Day that would bring together craftspeople from different areas of the Highlands and Islands I could think of nowhere better to hold it.

With the wonderful Pier Art Centre in Stromness, the range of craft studios, trails and shops as well as the consistently high standard of work, the landscape and heritage, I felt that makers could only go home inspired.

I also wanted makers to realise that location should be no deterrent to making and retailing and indeed, can be used as a selling point and should inspire your creating. The makers in Orkney have long proved this with a first class reputation for work that really takes advantage of the place that is their home.

With makers such as Jenna and Lizza Hume returning back to their roots on Westray (1 ½ hours by ferry from Kirkwall on a calm day) and building an internationally known company that really sells their location, I felt that by speaking with and visiting the islands our makers based in other areas would have no excuse to say that where they stay is holding them back!

Like all good plans, this one grew and we finally ended up with over 50 makers coming from the Highlands, Shetland, the Western Isles -as well as Orkney- to gather at the Pier and then disperse to workshops and shops all over the islands.

The weather proved a challenge as it can often do here, so gales and driving rain added an extra dimension to the ferry and plane travel of many of the participants!

Makers Days are all about networking or rather; catching up, exchanging ideas, making new friends and contacts, developing plans and this one was no exception – the noise level was particularly high and you could feel the buzz and excitement!

Many people work in isolation so events like this really help with connecting you to the wider craft community.
Being a maker in a remote area is essentially a life style choice with many parts making up the whole; family, animals, homes, community all having to fit in with the thing that really drives you -that all essential part that makes you tick and comes from your heart – creating your work.

To be able to do that in a place that is truly Home is a privilege that many aspire to and the lucky ones can realise.
Eoin Leonard put it so well when he talked on the Makers Day, ‘after 27 years doing a so called ‘proper job’, I feel that this is really my first Proper Job and I want to do it for as long as I can!’ No talk of early retirement and pension plans for Eoin and his wife Jane, just the wish that they can continue doing what they love, in their home for as long as they are physically capable.

Lizza Hume said something similar when she recalled a visitor who asked her why there were so many craftspeople in Orkney and they then suggested that perhaps it was because there was no ‘real jobs’here!
The makers we meet are certainly doing real and proper jobs and fitting them in with all the other things that make up their lives in a place that shapes and guides their choices and work.

Many of us in the Highlands know only too well the difficulties and issues we have to face in choosing to live here – travel, weather, isolation to mention three!

After my 2 hours on a stormy ferry followed by 6 hours of night time driving to get home from Orkney, it is something I know only too well!

I love this excerpt from a poem by Andrew Greig, as it seems to sum it all up, especially after spending time in Orkney.

Orkney/This Life

This is where I want to live, close to where the heart gives out, ruined, perfected, an empty arch against the sky
where birds fly through instead of prayers
while in Hoy Sound the ferry’s engines thrum
this life this life this life.

Pamela Conacher
29th September 2009