Westcoast Weavers
Ellishadder, Isle of Skye, Scotland
A windswept croft, on the Hebridean Isle of Skye; the home of Westcoast Weavers. Inspired by the rugged landscape and the soft muted colours of Skye, we weave on traditional handlooms using natural fibres, to create heirloom quality pieces for you and your home. “I would be about 13 or 14 when I saw an advert in the local paper for an evening course in weaving at the local village hall. I remember the excitement of producing my first piece of cloth, that wondrous feeling of seeing it slowly unroll off the front beam. Something just clicked with me and weaving; I immediately loved it. My lovely Dad made my first loom until I’d saved up enough money, from Saturday and holiday jobs, to buy my first ‘proper’ loom. Weaving quickly became a passion that I later developed in textile projects at school and then at college. It was whilst I was at college, studying weaving at Cumbria College of Art and Design, that I first visited Skye, with a group of friends. I knew, almost immediately that this was where I would live one day. It was following a couple of years working in a weaving mill in Carlisle, where head shawls for the Saudi’s were woven, (yes the red and white ones!) a post graduate degree and then 10 years of teaching Art and Textiles in Northumberland, that I moved to Skye to weave full time. I set up our business in the autumn of 2011 and spent that winter weaving and making stock in readiness for opening the studio and gallery, in the spring of 2012