Don’t Overthink It With Andrea Holden
Andrea Holden, a German born Skye weaver, designer maker.
Andrea and Roger Holden created Skye Weavers in 2012, Glendale on the Isle of Skye. Andrea and Roger are crafts people using traditional methods from start to finish. Their products are woven on bicycle pedal-powered looms, creating tweed, throws, blankets, garments and accessories all of which are of exceptional quality and design. Their relationship with the bicycle enduring, weavers in motion, a work song and a love song.
Andrea’s designs bring the landscape of the Isle of Skye through her love and engagement with the landscape, the love of the ‘small things’ creating a beautifully unique language in woven textiles, creating art through weaving, connecting communities, sharing stories and culture in her practice of this intricate craft from past to present. The spellbinding nature of Andrea’s art has been cast.
Andrea, artist, designer, maker, collaborator, is my third guest on this, the first series of Don’t Overthink It. The aim, to connect with Creatives on the Isle of Skye and discover their who, what, why and more.
Don’t Overthink It - Andrea Holden
1. Why wool?
Andrea: We love everything about wool - working with it, wearing it and living with it! Its qualities are truly exceptional: natural, renewable, warm, breathable, and biodegradable -the list goes on. As a weaver, I particularly enjoy working with our local Skye wool, which we’ve been using for eight years now. We collaborate closely with Skye farmers and crofters to select and grade the fleeces before having them spun into our Skye Wool yarn. It’s incredibly satisfying to use this natural and local resource and to know exactly where our wool comes from.
2. Your connection to the Isle of Skye where and when did it begin?
Andrea: I’m from Germany originally but fell in love with Scotland when I spent a year studying at the University of Edinburgh and working on organic farms throughout Scotland afterwards. One of the places I worked at was Ardalanish, an organic farm and weaving mill on the Isle of Mull. That’s where I met Roger, my husband and the other half of Skye Weavers. Roger had been coming up to Skye since his childhood, and when we decided to take the plunge and set up our own weaving business, Skye was the natural choice. We’ve really settled in here and feel so fortunate to call it home.
3. Your one word to describe the Isle of Skye, what is it?
Andrea: Home.
4. It’s summer on the Isle of Skye, the wind and rain vertical, you are standing in your favourite place, where is it and what are you listening to?
Andrea: I haven’t got ONE favourite place, but it would definitely be by the sea or on a hill. I imagine there would be the sounds of sea lapping onto the shore, oystercatchers complaining about my presence and wind buffeting the lichen-encrusted rocks.
5. Today, tomorrow, yesterday, what inspires you to create?
Andrea: Although we’re surrounded by these big dramatic landscapes it’s really the small things that inspire me. Lichens, mosses, grasses, rocks, bark, leaves - I love their patterns, textures and fascinating details, especially when you view them through the magnifying glass. When I’m out walking, I’m always taking photos of nature details and these also get added to my mental ‘inspiration bank’. The act of pedalling also seems to stimulate a stream of ideas!
6. Yes, or no?
Andrea: depends on question!?
7. What comes first in actualising your ideas and designs?
Andrea: The ideas often come from closely observing nature - peering through a magnifying glass and taking close-up photos. Sometimes it’s the colour combinations, other times the patterns and textures, especially in the finer details. My design process isn’t very organised - I spend a lot of time observing, laying yarns out next to each other, and exploring possibilities. Once I settle on the basics, I develop the design and figure out how to weave it. I experiment on the computer, but nothing compares to hands-on weaving. For that, I use a small table loom to create samples with different pattern combinations until I find the best fit.
8. What is the significance of ‘tread lightly’ in your practice?
Andrea: First and foremost, I would say it’s our commitment to working with a natural, renewable and - as often as possible - local resource: wool. We are also passionate about minimising our ‘footprint’ in all our operations. Our two looms are entirely pedal powered, i.e. no electricity required - incidentally, extremely useful when winter storms bring power cuts! We also built quite a lot of our equipment ourselves from re-cycled and re-purposed machinery, including a warping mill made from an old tractor rake. We like to minimise our ‘textile miles’ too - all our weaving and nearly all our sewing is done here in Skye, and when we do have to source elsewhere (for example, spinning and finishing) we work exclusively with UK firms, where possible in Scotland. Of course, there is always more you can do, and we are always looking for ways to minimise our footprint and tread as lightly as we can on the planet.
9. What brings the freedom, joy, and stillness, describe yourself in those moments?
Andrea: Running a small business does mean juggling lots of things at the same time, so finding stillness can be a challenge. For me, the easiest way to escape from all the multi-tasking and stay still in the moment is actually to steadily move through the landscape, preferably on foot.
10. What book are you reading or writing?
Andrea: I usually have several on the go. At the moment it’s Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series, “The Cliff House” by Christopher Brookmyre, and various non-fiction books on lichens and textile history.
11. What lies and reveals itself in the landscape to connect your work to place?
Andrea: I think there’s beauty in every landscape - even in old industrial wastelands. You just have to look carefully enough. But we are especially fortunate in the stunning landscapes we have all around us in Skye. When I’m out walking I absorb the colours and textures around me and bring those back to the weaving shed. I love working with what I see and experience every day. Fortunately, it seems to resonate with our visitors as well.
12. Your relationship with the bicycle, describe it?
Andrea: I’ve always loved cycling - it’s a very cinematic way of seeing a landscape. I’ve done some long journeys over the years and there’s something very special about the relationship you develop with the world around you when you’re on two wheels. As for bicycle pedal-powered weaving: people often comment that it must be great exercise but actually I don’t think it’s brilliant for calorie burning. However, there’s definitely something about the movement that seems to stimulate ideas so I’m happy with that.
13. What question would you ask yourself, share the answer?
Andrea: Not sure how to answer that. I wouldn’t ask myself too much because I know I haven’t got any answers!
Thank you, Andrea Holden my super creative weaver.
Skyeweavers.co.uk.