Gallery of Weavings for Exhibition & Sale

Lynn exhibits on the Isle of Arran at the Burnside Gallery

Celtic Loom Blessing

Thrums nor odds of thread
My hand never kept, nor shall keep
Every colour in the bow of the shower
Has gone through my fingers beneath the cross
White and dark, red and madder
Green, dark grey, and scarlet
Blue and roan, and colour of the sheep
And never a particle of cloth was wanting.

I beseech calm Bride the generous
I beseech mild Mary the loving
I beseech Christ Jesu the humane
That I may not die without them
That I may not die without them

Shore Patterns 2006

Handspun & Natural Dyed Shetland Wool, Cotton & Silk, Wooden Found Object

£600

Galway Shawl

Natural Dyed Yarn, Glitter Yarn, Fishing Corks from Lochranza

£1000

The idea for Galway Shawl goes back to my first visit there on St. Patrick’s Day 1999.

I was en route to the island of Inisbofin for a conference of European women taking part in a New Opportunities for Women Project.

The theme of the project was to promote work for island women through tourism & traditional skills.

At that time I was managing the Arran Textiles programme here on Arran.  I successfully raised over £300,000 in the space of seven years to teach weaving and spinning skills, confidence building & appropriate information technology. The results of the programme are clearly evident on the island today.

Little did I realise on that first trip to Galway that I would return on a regular basis over the next six years to work on other European exchange projects and that in the meantime my daughter and family would move there from the US.

At the end of the NOW project in 2000 I travelled to Inis Oirr on the Aran Islands to the final conference. I was most impressed by the hundreds of stone walls which give Inis Oirr it’s character. There is of course a link with the inspiring “stane dykes” at home on Arran which people have built over the centuries to define land boundaries and clear the land for cultivation.

The time we spent on Inis Oirr was bathed in sunshine and the mellow colours provided inspiration for the design of the shawl.

Galway Shawl is a memory of soft stones, sunshine & rugged sea – hence the fishing corks.

It is a symbol of the warmth & comfort that women take from the work of their hands and pass on to those they love.

After Iceland

Icelandic Wool & Silk

£1000

In November 2001 I spent several days at Holar Agricultural College in Northern Iceland as part of an international writing team producing a learning pack for craft businesses throughout Europe to promote community development in rural areas.

We worked in semi-darkness - the sun rose at 11 am and set again at 3 pm - the outside temperature with wind chill factor was below 60 degrees.

On the last day of our visit we travelled by bus down to Reyjavik from Holar during daylight hours. We stopped to visit a crater, an underground cave carved from the lava which was truly the bowels of the earth and the magical waterfall at Bjarnafoss where the water poured through the lava melting from the glacier above.

This work is woven with Icelandic wool from Reykjavik combined with natural white silk, a memory of a bus journey which I will never forget.

Sea Changes 2003

Natural Dyed Shetland Wool & White Silk

Moments in the movement of the sea on a day of shimmering sunlight and occasional wind. Blues & greens reflect the clarity of the sea on such a day with the white froth of a silken wave responding to the breeze.

SOLD

Sand and Foam 2002

Handspun Shetland Fleece and White Silk, woven on Driftwood

The driftwood is the loom in this weaving. The silk & wool were woven directly on to the wood to create one form. Weaving & sculpture meet in this work, enhancing both the driftwood & the fibres.

SOLD

Celtic Wedding

White & Tussah Silk, Cochineal Dyed Wool & Driftwood

White & Tussah Silk contrast each other in this weaving in the way that male & female are contrasted in a relationship - luxuriously different in character but part of the same. The red lines are the bloodlines that marriage brings together. Celtic monks wore white in their “leine croiche” or tunics as do brides as a symbol of hope and joy.
1m / 1m

£650

Stane Dyke

Handspun Shetland Wool in Natural Colours with Flax & Handspun Linen

Tradition comes together in this weaving where the natural materials pay tribute to the natural elements which shape our island and record our history. Traditionally fields were cleared for cultivation by removing the stones and building them into boundary fences or dykes. These man-made structures define the landscape as much as the natural forms of rocks & mountains.

The yarns in this weaving are from the natural colours of the sheep which graze in the fields on Arran. They are also from flax. The process which turns the flax plant into linen has been practiced since antiquity. On Arran until recently it was an essential island industry providing much needed income to the parish economy.
Approx. 1m x 1m

£650

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