Our Textiles Workshop at Inchmore

It's been a busy week...... On Monday I dismantled the computers and tidied up the cable spaghetti that connected everything together. It's all in the one box - I just have to hope that I can figure out how to put it all back together.   Then I set to work and put the first coat of paint on walls and ceiling of that little part of the studio. On Tuesday morning I went back in and painted the second coat.    Then I went and collected my sister off the bus from Glasgow and together we headed over to the Isle of Lewis for a couple of days. It is now a full year since our mother died and we had various loose ends that needed tying up - plus friends to visit and tweed to buy....    We were blessed with beautiful, calm, sunny weather and managed to fit in a walk across to the other Calanais stone circles - which Susan had never been to before despite over three decades of visiting the island. She spent a happy hour or so taking photograph...

For over a year we have been planning to do a major refurbishment of The Workshop.  We need more space to store our fabrics, more space to display our stock and a better organised area to work in.  Following discussion with our very obliging landlord, it was agreed that the best plan was for him to clear his "junk" out of the attic and let us take over that space. cutting table - this will store all our rolls and boxes of fabric It took a while, but we finally got the attic cleared in November and then got the whole roof lagged and boarded with lights and sockets installed.  Early in December we had a carpenter come in and build us a bespoke workbench/storage unit.   Things then had to hang fire a bit while we got ready for Christmas, but after a lovely few days with family and friends it was back to work. Ben Wyvis - Thursday 28th December 2017 At this stage, we have not got heating installed in the attic, and I forgot to take out the spare electric hea...

I am Ruth Black - a textile artist working along with my daughter and granddaughter in the Highlands of Scotland.  "The Workshop"  is an old wooden building in the village of Inchmore, just 6 miles from Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland and dating from the mid 19th Century.  Originally it served as a joinery workshop but now it is home to a three-generation family team working with a variety of textile processes, fibres, fabrics, yarns and threads. When we first took up occupancy of The Workshop in 2011 the main focus was to carry on our family business, Anna Macneil. Anna Macneil (aka Barbara Morrison, 1929 - 2017) started making hats using Harris Tweed from her home on the Isle of Lewis when she moved there in the 1980s.   She was joined in this venture by me, her daughter, in the 1990s but she continued making hats until a combination of poor health and failing eyesight made it no longer possible. However, the business is still carried on by me wi...