Lindsey Gallacher

It's been a fantastic and busy year with Emergent Makers based in Inverness.  I applied for mentorship from them having spent so long away from the goings on in the contemporary craft world, I really needed some help to be pointed in the right direction, and this is exactly what I got. Friendly help, support and advice from a number of experts who came and helped us with various issues we were experiencing at different times of the year. This is the advert for our end of project exhibition now on at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.  Me, Lucy Dunnachie, Jane McLeod, Lucy Macdonald, Rebecca Brown and Rebecca Cotton all live in the far reaching corners of the Highlands and Islands. We all have the same concerns about isolation in terms of access to contemporary craft groups, support and inspiration from other workers. We have all found our way this year through different routes, getting together in Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and at the end 4 out of the 6 met with...

 I have been experimenting with the concept of using lichen covered stone.  It has been noted that lichen is a living thing and I've contemplated the problem with using it for my work for a while now.  This particular lichen is actually the very common Crabs Eye Lichen (Ochrolechia parella) It covers every piece of stone that exists in Caithness, there is as much of this lichen as heather on the hills or moss on the ground.  To protect the lichen from flaking off I have chosen to put a thin coating of resin over it and this has turned the white an interesting orangey yellow. What is of importance to me is that I don't go removing vital stones from the walls that surround the fields.  These walls have been here for hundreds of years, and the more I look at them the more I marvel at the shear scale of man power that went into building them. Hard graft and skill.  The walls have survived hundreds of years of powerful storms and sadly many of them are slowl...