Craft Feature: Shetland Creativity at New Designers

Among the fresh talent at New Designers this year were five graduates in Contemporary Textiles from Shetland College who attracted attention from product managers, outlets and international companies.

Work by Angela Irvine

UHI Student of the Year, Angela Irvine, who presented her Funky Twilight Lace collection, had many interesting discussions including an invitation to lecture and was invited to join the prestigious Society of Designer Craftsmen. With two children, she was a housewife for ten years before studying fine art, and was persuaded by her daughters to do textiles. The result is a collection of beautifully hand knitted garments combining traditional three needle hand skills from the 18th century with digital print designs using her own photography and drawings.

Another graduate taking Shetland lace into fashion is Joan Manson who has exploited the sculptural qualities of fine yarn weights to create ethereal garments. She used hand tooling to create original lace patterns which she then developed with CAD progressive lace knitted on machines. She received a lot of enquiries about her work, which has encouraged her for the future.

Work by Joan Manson

Using textiles in a completely different way is Hilary Seatter. A sample of her work, which is intended for commercial interior decoration within the arena of cafe culture, has recently been sent to a Milan based coffee company. Her print collection ‘Vesch’ is made from layered fabrics of different weights which create a moiré pattern. Her paper on animation in printed textiles was accepted for “In the Loop 2”, the international textile conference being hosted this month by Shetland.

Work by Hilary Seatter

Inspired by her research into the history of Fair Isle knitting and images of modern art, Jennifer Tait developed a range of machine knitted garments, which won her the UHI Business Idea competition.

Work by Jennifer Tait

The fifth graduate in the group, Marion Isa MacPhee, from Benbecula, evolved a collection inspired by her Great Auntie Ippy’s living room. She produced a keepsake book from the different objects and textiles in the room and from these developed her ‘Ardmhore’ collection of wraps and scarves combining silk-screen printing with CAD-CAM knit processes. She developed her cashmere scarves during an industrial placement at Peter Scott and is now starting her own business on Uist.

Work by Marion Isa MacPhee

Work by Marion Isa MacPhee

The work by these graduates is taking Shetland textiles forward into the 21st century, with a creative approach where new technology is combined with skills that have been handed down through generations.

Tina Rose, September 2010