Fabric Reconditioners

Scottish textiles designers are combining traditional crafts with modern techniques to create new coverings for the home. Compiled by Zoe Keown

Jolene Rae, Mini Rose wallpaper

While the textiles industry in Scotland may never return to the halcyon days before cheap, mass produced materials began flooding the market from overseas, some designers – both long established and a new breed – are creating innovative materials and patterns or putting established ones to new uses. Even Hollywood has been paying attention.

Janis Embleton 100 per cent silk used for upholstery, curtains or cushions

With the added touch of digital print, Jolene Rae, a graduate of Heriot-Watt University School of Textiles & Design, produces tea towels on hemp and organic cotton. Influenced by country living and patchwork quilts, her pretty range instantly adds a touch of ‘Home, Sweet Home’ charm to every abode. She also creates wallpapers using digital print. Alongside leading international quilt artists, Jolene is due to exhibit at the Festival of Quilts, the largest show of its kind in Europe, at the NEC in Birmingham from August 19-22. www.jolenealexis.co.uk

Jillian Rampage, Digital print on cotton lawn for use on lightweight interior fabrics such as curtains

Another Heriot-Watt graduate, Jillian Rampage mixes traditional ideas with a modern twist to create beautifully coloured, floral and striped furnishing prints and wallpapers with a 1950s theme. She begins her designs with drawings and paintings, which she then works on in the computer design programme Photoshop to colour and compose. Her first coat is screenprinted with white opaque dye. She then puts the fabric through a digital printer. Resisting the reactive dye, the white opaque is then allowed to shine through. www.lilyandpoppy.com

Inverness Tweed Cube

Combing traditional weaves and patterns with contemporary design, Borders-based Janis Embleton produces a sophisticated range of high quality, hand-woven items. Using natural fibres, primarily silk and linen, her work combines traditional skills and techniques with modern designs. Her range includes table linen, rugs, cushions and abstract wall-hangings for the home and public spaces. Janis also runs workshops for groups and individuals. www.crossing-borders.org.uk (Search ‘artists’)

Everything from ANTA is made in Scotland, from woollen yarn used for carpets and tweeds sourced in the Western Isles and woven in the Borders to oak furniture made in the Highlands. Recently the company designed a new interior for the Scottish Cafe and Restaurant in the National Gallery of Scotland following a brief which called for a contemporary look which was also sympathetic to the historical surroundings. Huge, horizontal stripes of Inverness tweed cover the back wall, the graded heather tones bold but comforting and dampening the restaurant bustle to create an intimate atmosphere.

Tweeds offer versatility because of their different textures and robustness, giving an extra dimension to the decorators’ palette. ANTA’s Inverness tweed, the most popular in the collection, is 100 per cent natural and has a light background woven as a herringbone with green and brown overchecks. As well as wall covering, it can be used for curtains and upholstery. It is also available as flat weave carpet suitable for stairs and landings and as rugs. www.anta.co.uk

Using high quality yarns like cotton, wool, chenille and linen, Morton Young & Borland Textiles (MYB) are traditional through and through. They have been weaving fabric at their Ayshire mill in Scotland since 1900 and are the only producer in the world still using 90-year old machines. In this labour-intensive manufacturing process, the machines run at a very slow speed compared to those designed for mass production, which allows for greater attention to detail and quality.

Now the company has diversified to create its new ‘Paper Lace’ micro-collection, a fusion of old and new made in collaboration with Timorous Beasties which shows how time-honoured, classic design can be given a second lease of life through innovation.

In a project first for MYB, the company has reinvigorated its classic 1950s cotton lace fabric ‘Lydia’ (the company’s bestselling design for the last 60 years) and added a new interpretation, ‘Linda’, to create two stylised wallpapers which look exactly like lace fabric, but with a modern, cutting edge feel. The collection has been created on woven paper and vinyl and comes in six colours with a selection of matching textured plains.

Fashionably ‘haute’, the elegant reinvention has also caught Hollywood’s eye. After spotting the wallpaper at a trade show, the director of Sex and the City 2 chose it for the film. www.mybtextiles.com/Paper_Lace.asp

Sole Scottish stockists: The Couture Rooms, 47 Comiston Rd., Edinburgh, T 0131 447 6403, www.thecouturerooms.com