Artists on Skye

Do talented people move to the Isle of Skye?

Or does the breath-taking beauty inspire average folks to become more creative?

Not sure.

But it was fun meeting, watching and interacting with the local artists.

This is Kathleen from The Raven Press Gallery.
She is demonstrating how she engraves on wood. The detail is teeny tiny.

Printing is done on this hand press in her gallery.
Her pieces are framed and cover every wall.

Jennifer, the quilter, was out of town. So her husband graciously gave us a tour of her studio. But first, we stopped to admire his garden. He places empty soda bottles on top of sticks and they rattle in the breeze and keep the birds and bunnies out of his vegetables. Clever.

Showing off some of Jennifer's work.

Not sure how she gets anything done with this view.

A colorful quilt hangs in their foyer.

Meet Andrea. She is operating a bicycle pedal-powered loom.
She let us hop on. Clickety clack, clickety clack, we made a red and gray blanket.

There is a fine art to getting all the threads in place. Very time consuming.

Say hi to Linda. We stopped in front of her gift shop and heard a voice from the back of a nearby barn holler, "Wanna watch? Or should I clean up and open the shop?" We totally wanted to watch.

It takes her twenty minutes to shear a sheep with scissors (she feels that clippers can nick the skin). The sheep got quite agitated (understandably) when she got close to its private parts but Linda, considerably lighter than the sheep, was able to hold the animal down and finish the job.

All done. Wool is wrapped up and added to the bin.
Time to head over to the gift shop where she makes and sells paintings, jams,
knitted baby items, crocheted scarves, wallhangings, magnets, cards and more.