Tartans & Their Scottish History – Jesse Wallace

Scottish tartans originate from the Gaelic families and dynasties that eventually became Scottish clans in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, Celts all over Europe are said to have been wearing Tartans for “Three Thousand years at least”, according to the Scottish Tartans Authority.  Tartans are fabrics that are created by weaving with various colors of warp and weft yarn, and then creating a diagonal pattern that is then used to create the various shades that form the highly contrasting effect. The base pattern for Tartan fabrics is called a sett, and it is pictured below:

An image of a Tartan “plaid” fabric being woven(top). A close up of how the different warps and diagonal patterns create the classic Tartan pattern(bottom).

In terms of historical context, the Tartans are actually very important pieces of history for Scottish family clans. When someone weaves a plaid print, they are actually not creating an official Tartan unless the pattern is verified by the Scottish clan’s organization and follows the specific rules for that set pattern. For an example, I actually used my family’s history, because I am related to the Wallace family dynasty that became famous in Scotland in the 12th and 13th centuries. Different families have different official Tartans, and some of the Wallace Tartans can be found below. These three patterns were first officialy verified by the family in the 19th century, but similar Tartans existed centuries before as a part of the Gaelic Uallas kingdom, the precursor to the Wallace family.

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Red Wallace Tartan
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Green Wallace Tartan
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Wallace Dress Tartan

Official Tartan fabrics were first found in these family dynasties in Scotland in the 16th century. At the time, Scotland’s map was much different than today, but Tartans popped up in various locations around this area.

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A map of 16th century Scotland.

It was fascinating to go down this rabbit hole of weaving, Tartans, and my family history. It is really powerful to notice and feel how so many different aspects of life are deeply connected in unexpected ways.

Resources:

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-History-of-Tartan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan
https://www.houseofnames.com/uallas-family-crest
http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_clan#Crest_badge

Mending 2 – Jesse

I am finishing up the sunflower and attempting to add different colors to the petals. It’s fun to add texture to the pants through the thick layers I am putting on each petal.

My final product is shown below! I am really happy with how the textures came out and how this old pair of jeans has a new life.

Finally, here is my current second tapestry that I embroidered on!

Mending – Jesse

I chose to spend time getting comfortable with embroidery on fabrics over the weekend, and experimented with many pieces of my clothing for embroidering techniques. For my larger embroidery/mending project, I chose to spice up my old pair of party jeans. These were my jeans that I would wear out a lot, and they have been to many concert/parties/gatherings with me. It’s been really hard to cope without the types of interactions I am used to, and it has been really damaging my mental health. Because of that, I decided to add some beauty to the pair of jeans that I miss wearing the most. I decided to add a sunflower because flowers and natural patterns remind me of the hope in life. Also, they remind me of my dogs at home, both of which have helped me get through every setback in life. This photo is an in-progress photo, but I like how the flower is turning out so far!

I also am finishing up my second tapestry, and I plan on embroidering brightly colored tree leaves over the flat piece I have right now. The flat part is pictured below:

Tapestry Weaving – Jesse

I spent a lot of time on this tapestry and it was really rewarding! I chose to express myself through this work and include vibrant colors, patterns, and lots of textures. My final product is below:

It was a very iterative process, and I wanted it to be very truthful and honest. If I tried something and did not like it, I undid it and started again. That created the fun challenge of reusing medium length yarns. This piece honestly took a lot of time because of that, but I am glad because I learned a lot and produced something I am happy with. I have already begun my next tapestry!

Textile Based Artwork – Jesse Wallace

For this assignment, I was inspired by the many small artists on social media who have been using the internet to share their extremely creative and original textile art! It’s really inspiring to see what these creators make, and it makes me wish I could sew and embroider(which is why I am super excited for the rest of this class).

For a specific artist, I chose the instagram user @4×1111, who makes custom wearable art.

Screenshots from @4×1111’s Instagram account, showing the various custom made sweaters.

These are only a few examples, but they have made many custom sweaters in this way. I honestly don’t even have a guess for how they are made, but they’re super cool and sell out almost instantly when drops happen. This is also only one example of the cool small artists on Instagram/Depop, there are so many more! Link to their instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/4×1111/


Improvisational Weaving : The Deeper Dive – Jesse Wallace

For my first weaving, I decided to use two scarves – one my mother gave me, and one my father gave me. I enjoyed thinking about the origin of the objects I own, and based off of that I eventually built the piece up to consist of many objects that are common and everyday, but that I need a lot in life. Those include: an iPhone charger, my painters tape, label maker, and post it notes.

For the next pieces, I wanted to use my new weaving skills to add some cool decor to my apartment. I asked my roommate if I could use her record box and add a simple weaving to it for a pop of color. I also used a skull I recently 3D printed, and added some color through weaving as well. The skull piece turned out interesting to me because the weaving kind of looks like a bandage.

Improvisational Weavings – Jesse Wallace

For this assignment, I chose to take inspiration from one of my favorite parts of my apartment – my posters. I have an extremely large poster collection and I use their colors on my wall to brighten my day and add some fun to wherever I am living. Because of that, when it was brought up that paper can be woven together in this class, I knew from the start that I should weave two posters together. I chose two that have bright and contrasting colors(pink and blue) so that the new Double Poster™ would look extra bright. The result was awesome and I cannot wait to put this new piece on the wall with my normal posters.

I also chose to do a similar course of action for my next weaving. My roommates and I are making an album wall of printed album covers from our favorite musicians. I took the two extra ones that printed(“The Big Day” by Chance the Rapper and “Vikings” by New Politics) and I wove them together as well. I then chose to use the extra photo paper to add some spice to the back half of the paper I was working on. Finally, I used the paper to write my roommate a letter!

Finally, I wanted to use my 3D printer to add to the project, so I decided to print a miniature loom and weave that using a friend’s string. Its only about 1inx2in, and it’s super cute! It was also really rewarding to make because I combined my MechE line of work with IDeATe.