A Focus on Orcadian Crafts

Wed, May 21

Not surprisingly it is rainy, cool and windy so this will be another day pursuing crafts and art, this time heading south to South Ronaldsay where we had landed from the ferry. Our first stop is the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery which everyone has told us to visit.  Leila Thomson’s work is large and beautifully executed and she tells us that she works at her loom 12 hours a day or more. Her daughter Jo and son Andrew have joined her and their work speaks very much to the wide open windy spaces, the beaches and sky, the birds and the seas. (www.hoxatapestrygallery.co.uk)

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Hoxa tapestry
Hoxa tapestry
This Hoxa tapestry is 6 by 8 feet
This Hoxa tapestry is 6 by 8 feet

 

Andrew lets me use the WiFi connection (ever in the pursuit of email from home, news of crises…or actually mostly to get rid of unwanted spam). I buy several cards, Jill buys a framed print.

From this gallery we head back to St Margarets Hope to check out The Workshop and Loft Gallery, a crafts producers’ co-op specializing in knitted items and local crafts.

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I fall for another sweater; fortunately it’s not my size. Enough already!! Show some restraint! I did however buy a set of Alison Moore’s stacked rings, Michael exchanges some yarn for a darker color. (www.workshopandloftgallery.co.uk)

 

Here’s a good place to insert a few of the Harray Potter pieces I have bought, both at his studio and in the Stromness shop:

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One of Andrew's  "willy" cups!
One of Andrew’s “willy” cups!
Using motifs from neolithic pottery shards
Using motifs from neolithic pottery shards
A Loving Bowl that I've bought to give Geoffrey and Monica at their September wedding
A Loving Bowl that I’ve bought to give Geoffrey and Monica at their September wedding

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We eat our sandwiches back in the car–can they indeed be BLTs again? Probably, and then we head north across the causeway to Burray Island where we stop to get coffee at the Fossil Museum there. The gift shop is uninspiring, the museum display, as much as we can see, is uninviting and the coffee is undrinkable. We strike that off our list for any potential future visits! I fail again to get a good picture of the sunken ships in Scapa Flow and I tentatively mention that I’d like to visit some of the World War II sites but get no endorsement for the idea. I have watched many British war dramas (I think particularly of A Family at War) that I feel an attachment to this place. I will have to be content with the Italian Chapel.

Then of course we are back in Kirkwall again, but this time we are looking for Orkney chairs. Lynn has been talking about buying one of the hooded chairs for months. Our first stop is Scapa Crafts Orkney Chairs where Jackie and Marlene Miller show us how these traditional chairs are made. (www.scapacraftsorkneychairs.co.uk)

DSCN3572 This one is sold and will be on its way to California soon.

Jackie and Marlene Miller
Jackie shows off a nearly finished piece and Marlene talks with Lynn who is wearing her new Orkney sweater

The chairs are very comfortable and Lynn has practically handed over her credit card until we learn how much just the shipping will be. About $1000! We tell them that we are thinking of visiting Eday Island because it is such a good place to observe seabirds. Jackie, who is originally from Eday, says they will be going there on Friday, practically invites us to go with them but then remembers it is for a funeral. From there we go just a couple of blocks  to the studio of a former Miller apprentice, Fraser Anderson, and look at his furniture. His is a bit more varied in style but the shipping cost looms ever larger. Eventually both Lynn and I settle on buying small model chairs. She really hates to give up the idea  but we try to convince her that she can craft her own, perhaps with the help of Michael and Ruth (ruthbmcdowell.com) who have done a lot of basketry and twig furniture.

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Jill has been hankering for fish and chips so this will be an evening without one of our home-cooked meals. We pull up next to the shop and Jill calls to some teenage boys hanging out, fish and chips in hand, “Is it good?” and we are told that yes, it’s good and one boy says to the other, ” Eh, you fancy ‘er?” We bring in three portions (Michael never, ever eats any sort of fish or seafood so he heats up the remainder of the pot roast and tries not to gag over the odor floating up from our decidedly heavy meals. If we do this again we’ll skip the chips.) And no, they’re not wrapped in newspaper, but in plain white butcher’s paper.

We watch a bit of the Chelsea Garden Show judging and an English version of American Pickers and do a bit of knitting. I am getting more and more frustrated  trying to master netzpatent! Poor Michael. Every time I screw up I hand it to him to tink–that’s knit spelt backwards–back past the mistake and get me on the straight and narrow again. Hopeless!!