Contemporary Scottish textiles by Heather Shields

from ESTILA Vol 14 ANTHOLOGY OF WELLBEING

Creating unique designs inspired by nature, travel and Japanese craft

Started with an idea to offer a contemporary alternative to the traditional fabrics Scotland is associated with, over the past eight years, Heather Shields has been building her textile design practice with distinct patterns, strong graphic edge and a playful approach to colour, applying her designs onto fabrics, homeware and accessories.

Based in Gourock on the west coast of Scotland, Heather designs her cloth using both traditional and electronic looms, hand weaving samples with carefully selected yarns in bold colour palettes. All fabrics are either hand woven by Heather in her home studio or woven in small batches at a mill in Scotland. Each piece is then handmade in-house before being inspected and packaged up, ready to go to a new home.

On the following pages Heather shares her passion for textiles, sustainable design and producing high quality products.

Tell us more about the beginnings of your brand. What sparked the idea for Heather Shields?

After graduating from Glasgow School of Art with a degree in woven textiles I decided quite early on that I'd like to have my own textile design practice. I knew I wanted to continue weaving and I was lucky that a secondhand loom became available for sale not far from my home. I started my own business in 2014 as I felt like I could offer a different design aesthetic to the traditional fabrics such as tartans and tweeds that are usually associated with Scottish textiles. Now I find myself thinking beyond design and provenance and a lot more about sustainability, durability and the full life cycle of my designs.

Your products are absolutely beautiful. Where do you find inspiration for the graphic pattern designs and colour combinations in particular?

Thank you very much. I find inspiration in everything really, in everyday experience, nature, architecture, domestic settings or unusual objects.

As Paul Smith once said; 'You can find inspiration in everything (and if you can't, look again!)'. I also think inspiration and influences change as your skills develop, we are drawn to different things at different times. My new collection is primarily inspired by basalt rock formations on the Isle of Staffa but also by Scottish cliffs and coastal landscapes in general.

Having taken up rock climbing over the past few years I've found myself exploring areas I would otherwise never have access to and starting to notice different geological features and characteristics of these wild and unpredictable places.

The repetitive linear forms also reminded me of modernist architecture, such as Finlandia Hall by Alvar Aalto, which then became a secondary influence on how I developed my designs on the loom. Choosing a colour palette often feels quite instinctual, my current palette is much moodier and darker than my previous work partly to reflect the intensity and contrast of the rock with the surrounding sea and the infamously changeable Scottish weather. Deep, inky blues, greens and greys capture this stormy nature and give the designs a timeless and sophisticated feel.

Can you tell us more about the manufacturing process? You use both, traditional and electronic looms, right? How do you find working with both methods?

Yes, I have a traditional George Wood dobby loom and an electronic dobby loom, which I use most often as it is smaller - unfortunately, my current studio space won't allow for a 6 foot high loom! Both looms have their advantages and disadvantages and both require the weft to be inserted by hand using a shuttle, so it's a slow process. However, whilst I prefer weaving on my traditional loom, the electronic loom saves me a bit of time when making the pattern as instead of hammering sequences of wooden pegs I can design and edit the pattern on my laptop. The designs also evolve during the weaving process when experimenting with different materials and techniques, the loom acting not only as a means of manufacture but as an integral design tool. My pieces are either hand woven in my home studio or mill woven at Drove Weaving, a mill in Langholm with whom I work with for larger pieces and collections.

You have done some amazing collaborations. Tell us more about creating partnerships within the industry. What is your favourite project so far?

Forging partnerships is incredibly important to me as I often work on my own and so having another creative perspective to bounce ideas off is invaluable. My favourite industry collaboration was with Roger Oates Design, as it was such a fun and rewarding process from start to finish. Visiting their studio and workshop in Ledbury and viewing the archives was a particular highlight. It was such a thrill to see the final pieces after hand-weaving the sample designs at home and then overseeing the mill production of the final cloth.

Any plans for the months ahead?

I'm itching to get back to the loom and plan on balancing the new mill woven collection with some hand woven one-off pieces. I would like to take some time to reflect on my practice, learn some new skills and experiment with different materials and yarns. E