This print was my winning entry in the textile print competition of New Lanark World Heritage Site and Visitor Centre.
The brief was to design a pattern in response to the theme of “Life and Work in New Lanark”, in the branding colours of the Heritage Site and the Visitor Centre.
I came up with the idea of this collage of photos of New Lanark and its environment. The flowy waves represent both the River Clyde shaping the valley but also the continuous flow of the yarn.
The waves are cut through in even lines as the rows of mills and houses emerge on the riverbank, a representation of the community of workers.
the title i gave this pattern, “a yarn well spun” is of course a textile pun - it refers to the many stories told through the community of mill workers, the unique tales of people who worked here. the photographic, collage-style composition of the pattern strengthens this idea.
I then developed a second design, more directly inspired by the milling process. The main motifs are wheels in motion, spinning yarns or the cogwheels of the machines.
The evenly cut circles however also represent the close-knit community of workers. The title of this pattern, “spinning webs” refers to this network of people working in the mills. As the motif also bears a slight resemblance to spider webs, it is a fitting name for the textile manufacturing process.
The wheels are deconstructed and several layers are rotated to add a dynamism to it, reflecting the busy and noisy nature of the milling process.
