First Day in Kilcar

This was the view on my walk to work this morning. It was a very short walk, just a few hundred yards, before it started to rain. Then I was graciously offered a ride into the mill by one of the many friendly locals.

We are just getting back from Showcase Ireland in Dublin. There is much scurrying about unpacking the van, replacing samples, and organizing the orders. Even with that the pace is much slower here than in the city.

Studio Donegal, where I will be working for the next three weeks, is located in the small rural village of Kilcar in County Donegal. The landscape is inescapable. One is surrounded by the fields, and rocks, and ocean, and sky in such an intimate way. This is not a region of grand vistas but of close framed points of view. The clouds limit visibility. The town is nestled down by the water with the hills all around.

It is easy to say that the textiles are inspired by the landscape. That piece of marketing isn't new. You honestly feel it here though. Nothing is just one color. All things natural and man made have a weathered worn-in quality. They have been beaten up and mixed together. The edges aren't necessarily rounded but the minerals have leached out and reacted with each other.

I am excited to be here and to have the opportunity to design using these traditional materials. In the woolen industry as in a great many others there is a balance to be struck between maintaining a connection with history and responding to the demands of the modern world.