About Isle of Mull Weavers
Isle of Mull Weavers was founded by
Bob and Kathy Ryan in 1987, and when they began to think about retiring a few years ago a fortuitous sequence of events brought their 1920's and 1950's looms to Ardalanish.
Bob now acts as Master Weaver and takes care of training a new generation of weavers. Weaver Mark Staley has been at Ardalanish for three years now and in 2007 another young apprentice joined the team.
Working in this Hebridean landscape,
Hebridean sheep were the natural choice for wool and we began with our own especially as it's many rich dark shades offered the potential to process and market natural undyed wool.
We now gather wool form other native breeds too, including Shetland and Manx Loaghtan and this gives our weavers a wonderful range of natural shades and colours with which to work. The wool is spun using water power at the New Lanark Heritage Centre, and returned to Ardalanish to be woven.
Producing Hebridean and Native Breed
Tweeds is a step towards revitalising the traditional
industry of weaving, with the end product paying tribute
to the sheep and the energy used to grow their lustrous
wool.
Our aim is to achieve a harmonious link
between the land, the products, and the consumer, and
we believe that the end result means that customers not
only benefit from a unique and beautiful product, but
also become connected with the land and what we are trying
to achieve here through this flow of positive energy. |