Researchers: Dr. Samantha Vettese, Dr. Xingyu Tao and Prof. Constantia Anastasiadou
Collaboration with: Artists, farmers, textile professionals and local communities at exhibitions at Kilmartin Museum, the Old Mill, Borders Textile Towerhouse, Creation Mill Textile centre, Dunfermline Carnegie Library, Verdant Works, Gracefield Art Centre, Gairloch Museum, Rozelle House, Kirkcudbright Galleries, Strathnaver Museum, the Barn Banchory during 2025
Forgotten Fleece Tales is a celebration of the space where art, craft, story and ecology come together. The exhibition features a curated collection of works made using “waste” or “unwanted” organic Scottish fleece, and byproducts of industrial fleece processing. It provides an immersive and in-depth exploration of the enduring value of Scottish fleece, both in terms of farming and textiles heritage, and hopes for a sustainable future.
For the exhibition, the team experimented with locally sourced waste fleece to create multiple laser-cut ribbons of composite material, showcasing the colour differentials with laser-cut lettering. The work will give visitors a glimpse of the future of sustainable textiles, based in Scotland’s rich history of wool production. The wool and cashmere, primarily selvedge waste from looms and knitting machines, are combined with biopolymers to form a sustainable material that harkens back to the 19th-century ‘shoddy’ production process but with a contemporary twist. Through this innovative method, the project not only highlights the authenticity and heritage of Scottish textiles but also reflects the transformative potential of digital craft and material science.
Forgotten Fleece Tales aims to engage visitors with sensory experiences, challenging them to honour wool’s place in our heritage, and to rethink it as a sustainable and versatile material for our future.