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Designing and Making Liturgical Stoles

The process of designing and making a stole has many steps.  In this post I hope to give an insight into what is involved so that you will understand how I work. The first step is a discussion with the client.  This might be in person at my studio or at a vestments fair at one of the theological colleges.  It might all be conducted through emails, or it might involve a combination of zoom chats and emails, with perhaps the odd telephone call as well.   Whichever way the discussions take place, the important thing is that we arrive at an outline of what the client wants that works with what I am able and willing to make. Designs often evolve through this discussion process.  A client might start off simply asking me to make a design exactly as they have seen in an earlier photo of my work, but then through discussion they become aware of different variations.     In one of my Google Photos albums I have posted photos of my Celtic Angel design so that you can see the huge range of design
Recent posts

Assembling my loom - Part 1 - unpacking

 I have just taken delivery of a new loom - but it's all in pieces!  Scandinavian flatpack..... The loom is a Toika from Finland and I chose the 16 shaft Llisa model with computer dobby.    It arrived beautifully packed in a large wooden pallet box which for some reason had been put on top of a standard pallet which was too small to properly hold the box.  However with the aid of some extra strapping and a bit of muscle power from my neighbour we managed to get the box across the gravel driveway and into the loomshed. I had read somewhere online that it needed a crowbar to open the box, so I was prepared for that.  But there were two steel straps tensioned around the crate.    Fortunately my side-snip wire cutters were up to the job and I managed to chew through the straps and set to work with the crowbar. Inside, all the pieces were well wrapped, anchored and secured so it took a good hour or so just to unpack the box.  At the end of that there was an enormous pile of polystyrene

The Hilton of Cadboll Pictish Stone - a design for a stole

Here in the north of Scotland, we have been in a covid lockdown for a month.  We have been told by the government to work from home if we can, so as I had lots of design work to do and no urgency on any of the making, I brought the computer home - good excuse because it's warmer here than in my workshop! The only interaction I have had with the rest of humanity has been through the medium of Zoom - for conversations with family, for church services and the occasional face-to-face with a client. A couple of weeks ago one such meeting took place and my client has commissioned me to design and make her ordination stole.   In the past she had worked on the Hilton of Cadboll project which was a "millenium project" - part archaeological excavations and part having stone mason Barry Grove carve a replica of this famous Pictish stone. The original stands on display in the National Museum of Scotland.  The "new" one is not so new now.  Looking for my photographs of the r

A Guide to Commissioning a Liturgical Stole

This post is aimed at those who may never have purchased a stole before.  Perhaps you are preparing for ordination or maybe you are commissioning a stole as a gift.   There are so many possibilities for a stole that it is difficult for some people to know where to begin.   Here I try to guide you through the process and ask you to consider many different things so that you can arrive at the right decision when it comes to making that purchase or placing an order. The stole is an ecclesiastical vestment worn by ordained clergy in most western Christian traditions during church services. The wearing of stoles goes back to the very earliest times of the Church and references Jewish traditions as described in The Old Testament.   "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty" (Exodus 28:2).  It is a long, narrow strip of cloth, usually embellished in some way and is normally in the specified colour for the liturgical season - although some P

Garden felting

For a very few days each year the blue irises in our garden are in bloom while the marsh marigolds are still flowering.  The complimentary colours of yellow/gold and purple/blue  are wonderful to behold. We are enjoying a little heatwave just now so the other day I sat in the garden and did a little watercolour sketch of an iris.    And today I set about making an interpretation of these flowers in felt. The first step was to select my colours of merino wool fibres.  It was definitely a question of blending as nothing I had was quite right for the irises - which are somewhere between blue and purple.  I decided on the inlay method - that is, make some pre-felt for the various components of the piece and cut them into the various shapes that I wanted.  The process of painting the flowers is helpful because it helps to analyse how the flower is formed.  The iris has three petals that point up into a peak, three smaller petals that spread out horizontally and a further three large petals

Making facemasks

Yesterday, 28th April 2020, the Scottish government announced they had decided to recommend the wearing of face coverings in a bid to limit the spread of the Covid-19 corona virus.   The idea is that they limit the chances of someone who may be infectious from spreading the virus to other people, rather than as a way of avoiding catching the infection. So I did a trawl of the internet looking at patterns and instructions for making such things.  They ranged from okay, but with limited detail to totally hopeless.    I fixed on one style that to me looked neatest and most effective and set about figuring out how to make it so that it fits my face.  I have a small face (despite people thinking I am rather "big-headed!) and it was obvious that the dimensions given were not appropriate for me.   If the mask isn't a good fit, it's no use to man nor beast! Here is my method, starting with how to take your own measurements so you can make them to fit you. Step 1 - Measure yo