Lynn Gray Ross

Selfie - February 2017 - 1

Lynn Gray Ross, MA (Hons)

Lynn has been a textile artist on the Isle of Arran for the past several decades, funding and managing craft-based community projects on the island.

She was born in Kilmarnock and spent her teens and twenties in the USA and Sweden.

She learned to knit as a child and studied weaving in Stockholm at Handarbetetsvänner.

In addition to her weaving work, Lynn manages the website for The Arran Knitting Company along with her daughter Jill and two sons Christopher and Simon.

You can see her weavings on the Gallery page of this website and her knitting designs on The Arran Knitting Company website.

She was the director of Silverbirch Spinning and Weaving Workshop in Whiting Bay for many years, teaching students who came to her from colleges worldwide.

Lynn has travelled extensively in the UK, the US & Europe, as a delegate from Scotland, teaching practical skills and advising on the development of craft projects as a tool for regeneration in rural communities.

Lynn has been an advisor to the government of Lesotho and the Tristan da Kunha Administration on the reintroduction of traditional craft production to the local economy.

Her work is exhibited on Arran and in textile exhibitions worldwide.

She says about her work:

“The inspiration for my knitting and weaving comes from the island, reflecting the constant changes in the natural surroundings and from the culture and history of the people who have lived here before me.

I use natural raw materials. They are the touchstone each time I start a new piece. The colours in my work are from natural dyes from a rainbow spectrum I have developed which is environmentally friendly both in the dye process and to the people involved in production.

I try to capture reflections of the sea or shapes of the mountains & rocks, or a fleeting glimpse of a figure like the Celtic monk who came to Arran from Ireland to nurture his spirit or Blind Peggy who dyed wool with plants which she recognised by taste. Through my textiles I can share my experience of colour, texture and the world about me in a way that would otherwise not be possible.”