Tweed

Tweed is a stereo sound installation composed of digital sound recordings and oral history materials and was part of 'Sound Matters: Exploring Sound through Forms'. a Crafts Council touring show.

The voices and sounds in Tweed were recorded over a number of visits to the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The first voice was documented in weaver Catherine Campbell’s weaving shed in Plocrapool, on the east coast of Harris. She is proud of her independent status as a weaver who ‘doesn't work for the Harris Mill’. The second voice was recorded in a weaving shed near Callanish on Lewis, as the weaver gave instructions on the use of a Hattersley Domestic Loom – traditionally used to produce Harris Tweed since 1919.

The composition brings together the various sound elements – the weaver’s environment, their voices, and the mechanical sounds of a mill at Shawbost, Lewis – synthesising industry, craft, heritage and personal knowledge and experience.