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?,>h,,->.f P.,1,-R: Traditional Crafts in Contemporary Scotland inithsonian LOUISE BUTLER <strong>Institution</strong> Scotland, a Lind ot rich contrasts, stretches tour hundred miles troni its James Wylie puts the final touches on a curling stone at :ncy border with England to its most northerly point, where the mainland drops from cliffs onto white sand beaches and out into the cold North Sea. From here, you can almost touch the Orkney Islands, but it is a further tive hours' sea travel to the remote Shetland Islands. In the roUing hills, famous salmon rivers, and lush valleys of the Borders and southwest Scotland, farming exists alongside a textile industry that still produces the world's finest cashmere and tartan cloth. North and west is Glasgow, which, after losing its shipbuilding industry, has re-emerged as a young. hip city with loft apartments, a vibrant arts scene, flagship stores, and international corporate headquarters. To the east is Edinburgh, Scotland's capital and since 1999 home to the Scottish Parliament. The smaller sister cities of Stirling, Perth, and Dundee mark the gateway to the Highlands—a patchwork of sea, lochs, mountains, and craggy and Louise Butler lives in the Scottish Borders and has worked as an independent curator and pro)ect manager smcr having previously held ,>.,,,w, curatorial posts in a number of U.K. museums, including The Embroiderers' Guild at Hampton Court Palace, London. Her special interests include costume, textiles, and contemporary crafts, and Scotland's indigenous skills. heather-covered moorlands, sparsely populated save for the northern cities ofAberdeen and Inverness. Fishing ports mark Scotland's east coast, and across in the west, the Inner and Outer Hebrides dot the Irish Sea. Scotland's unique identity sets it apart from anywhere else in Britain. Each culture has its own craft traditions, representing skills and trades originally acquired and practiced out of functional necessity. Scotland retains a wide range of distinctive crafts that have their roots in its social, crofting (small farming), and industrial past. These indigenous crafts are part of a continuing tradition, using materials and techniques transmitted from person to person across generations. Many of the skills
have a direct connection with working the land, fishing the sea, and other modes of community subsistence in a particular place. Goods are produced individually by hand or in limited numbers on small-scale machinery. Today, few crafts are commercially viable, and many are practiced only to fulfill immediate needs for income or pieced together with other work, as always in rural life. Tourism plays its part in keeping Fair Isle boatmaker Ian Best crafts a Ness Yoal during a demonstration at the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh. Photo courtesy Ian Best traditions ahve, and output is often stepped up seasonally, as in the Shetland Islands, where local patterned knitting sells well to summer visitors. Many craftspeople are self-employed and live in isolated, rural locations for reasons connected with their craft. For instance, spinners, weavers, and knitters may rear small flocks of rarebreed sheep to provide wool; basket makers may live in an area suitable for growing the wiUow they use. Shetland is now the only place in Scotland that retains formal teaching of a traditional craft—knitting—in the school curriculum. Throughout Scotland, craft associations and guilds provide informal support for exchanging skills and sharing information through newsletters, exhibitions, workshops, and demonstrations. The annual Royal Highland Show—a huge agricultural show that is Scotland retains held, ironically, a wide range of distinctive crafts that have their roots in its social, crofting, on the outskirts of Edinburgh—includes a major handcraft competition, and industrial past. and craftspeople from all over Scotland send work to be judged. This might include woven Harris Tweed from the Hebrides, oat-straw "kishie" baskets from Shetland, hooded Orkney chairs, fine Ayrshire whitework embroidery, handspun wools colored with natural plant dyes, shepherd's crooks, and sticks of hazel wood topped with finely carved and polished rams horn. Other items still manufactured in Scotland's traditional yet evolving styles are golf clubs, granite curUiig stones, tartans and kilts.
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SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL SCOTL
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The annual Smithsonian Folklife Fes
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Table of Contents The Festival: Doi
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The Festival: Doing the Public Good
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— a singular, global, mass coniii
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The 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festi
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— Appalachia Heritage and Harmony
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Virginia, is one of the best known.
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A mural by Tim White, in Bristol, T
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string bands of note were Charlie P
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Carolina, who learned many of her s
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— 1 riate •KM ''&L'X^'Ttyi«iFi
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- 26 Appalachia, Where Tradition an
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28 and Latin America. They are addi
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Native American Traditions in Appal
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32 OF APPALACHIA of cultural histor
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^, — 34 or "Dive for the Oyster."
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36 Pnolo by Jirri Higgins Library o
Page 40 and 41: . 2000. . ^^FORMATION Blue Ridge Mu
Page 42 and 43: Mali From Timbuktu to Washington /.
Page 44 and 45: universities in the United States,
Page 46 and 47: A woman [ in Timbuktu. Knotograpn b
Page 48 and 49: — From Golden Age Empires to Inde
Page 50 and 51: The French had hardly been welcomed
Page 52 and 53: \ constitution brought about the Th
Page 54 and 55: Burkina Faso. It is played on diffe
Page 56 and 57: Malian crafts are a legacy from the
Page 58 and 59: the garment, and ornamentation 56 s
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Page 62 and 63: ack into the Sahara and Sahehan zon
Page 64 and 65: increasing popularity of television
Page 66 and 67: — Certain dishes are linked to pa
Page 68 and 69: ft J ncK DjeDje, Jacquehne Cogdell,
Page 70 and 71: I Scotland at the Smithsonian is pr
Page 72 and 73: — John o'Groals OUTER HEBRIDES {W
Page 75 and 76: Scottish History: The Culture and t
Page 77 and 78: Much of contemporary Scottish tradi
Page 79 and 80: — 1 Traditional Song and Music in
Page 81 and 82: . . throughout occasional dance in
Page 83 and 84: j^ ,. V ẏ 7 Traditional Scottish
Page 85 and 86: — Panto in Scotland JOYCE MCMILLA
Page 87 and 88: — 85 The prehistoric Callanish St
Page 89: The makars ar also pairt o a proces
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Page 95 and 96: Moore, Maggie. Scottish Step Dancin
Page 97 and 98: General Festival Information FESTIV
Page 99 and 100: ^^1:30 S^ 3:00 Talking Tree 12;00 Y
Page 101 and 102: Scotland at Smithsonian the 3:00 Sc
Page 103 and 104: Scotland at Smithsonian Feis Stage
Page 105 and 106: Kora players perrorm at 6 p.m. at t
Page 107 and 108: Malian Foodways
Page 109 and 110: Scotland at Smithsonian the Feis St
Page 111 and 112: Dogon dancers at 12:30 p.m. at ttie
Page 113 and 114: Scotland at the Smithsonian Feis St
Page 115 and 116: 2:45 Growing Up m Mali 113 3:30 Bab
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Page 125 and 126: Festival Participants Laura Boosing
Page 127 and 128: The New Southern Ramblers (with Ral
Page 129 and 130: N'Goussonn, Koulikoro Salif Keita,
Page 131 and 132: Pottery Shoemakiiig TRADITIONAL MED
Page 133 and 134: Fiti Moore, Diitikeld DANCE POETRY/
Page 135 and 136: Tapestry Weaving Dovecot Tapestry W
Page 137 and 138: Special Tixanks Sam Adams. Tiie Mou
Page 139 and 140: staff SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Lawre
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Tourism Task Force Special thanks t
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• III SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS RECORD
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Smithso >lklife Festiv,
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