Esther Grav on Sheep to Shawl and Educating Public

Esther Grav on Sheep to Shawl and Educating Public

Shaelagh Cull

Esther Grav

Malting Tower at the Tett Centre

To be part member of the Sheep to Shawl, well, we'd like to think it's fun, but it's actually a bit of a stress, because you're on this deadline. And I've woven many times and waiting, anticipating for the yarn to come to you. So you could weave, yeah, there seems to be this sort of adrenaline rush for the four hours that are working. We always enjoy it and always keep coming back to it. Sometimes we think, why are we doing this, but it's a very good education, people can actually see. And that's part of why we do it is so that people can actually see the work that goes into making things from scratch. I mean, a lot of that people don't see that anymore. So we're always trying to educate the public, where do our clothing come from, and the promotion of wool and natural products is also really an important part of. We give a lot out to the public. There's lots of demonstrations, not just the sheep to shawl, but I think other activities that we participated in Arts on the Fence. And there's some social things that happen that people see. I mean, it's all part of an education thing. We're not just out there for how to make things for our household or for ourselves. It's also something that people need to understand where things come from. So it's a history, history of where clothing comes from, where your curtains, your living room, furniture, all of these things come from a source. They're not just out of a factory, and learning that and keeping. That's an art that we don't want to lose. So we need to pass it on.