Exploring what a flourishing ecosystem would look and feel like for textile makers in Scotland
Research
Textile making has a long lineage in Scotland, rooted in our cultural and industrial heritage. Contemporary textile making has roles in fostering sustainability, developing innovative materials and products, supporting wellbeing, enabling expressions of identity and heritage, and more beyond.
Sustaining a livelihood as a small-scale (often solo) textile maker in Scotland involves a balance between creative and business development; and access to communities and networks that enable this. Current data on small-scale textile makers in Scotland is limited and patchy, as is any understanding of the ecosystem that supports them.
An understanding of what exists and how it is experienced via a survey, along with a list of existing support systems will be brought together in workshops at which textile makers will ‘dream big’ about what could come next; how an ideal textile ecosystem would look and feel for makers, and how we can make Scotland a place where small-scale makers can flourish.
There are various opportunities to get involved in the research, to discuss the results, what they mean, and what we do with them. Research results will be shared here, and with Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government.
Aims
Thread Counts aims to construct a comprehensive picture of the Scottish textile-making ecosystem from the maker’s perspective, and re-imagine how that could make Scotland a place where small-scale makers can flourish.
Via a Maker Survey, we will attempt to capture and understand the complexity of what a textile maker is, what exists for them and the varied ways that they operate across Scotland:
- how do people come to textile making
- where and how do textile makers make work
- what enables textile makers’ practices
- what gets in the way of textile makers’ practices
- what connections, resources and support helps textile makers to develop
We will compile a list of existing support systems for textile makers.
With textile makers, in workshops we will ‘dream big’ about how an ideal textile ecosystem in Scotland would look and feel, and enable small-scale practitioners to flourish.
Who should get involved?
For the purposes of this research, we consider ‘textile making’ as the hands-on processes of creating fabrics from fibres, including surface treatments of fabrics. While we are interested in those who are using textile making to sustain their livelihoods, in full or part, we also want to understand the wider ways that textile skills and expertise are nurtured outside of registered businesses.
We recognise that the practice of textile making blends with fashion, tailoring, interior design, architecture, materials science, computing science, farming, gardening, tourism, performance, community work, participatory and socially-engaged practices, and many more. We also recognise that many people have a textiles-plus practice, combining textile making (which we define as fibre-to-fabric) with one or more of these.
Textile making may:
- be your only source of income
- happen alongside your other work
- be via bartering / exchange / volunteer systems
- take place in non-financial systems, e.g. guilds or peer sharing
- be combined with work in other disciplines, e.g. science, farming, tourism, performance, or community work
Choose which best describes your creative practice and its relationship with textiles to discover how you can contribute to Thread Counts:
- I run my own business producing textiles for sale and / or exhibition, e.g. fibres, cloth, garments, homewares, interiors
- I work with textile making within a fine / contemporary arts practice or as a researcher, e.g. in archives or galleries
- I share my knowledge about textile making for specialist or general audiences, e.g. in formal education settings, via my studio, as experiences, talks or the written word, curated exhibitions
- I experiment with materials and processes to innovate and create, e.g. equipment for textile making
- I share my textile making knowledge solely as a paid employee in a formal education setting (Further Education or Higher Education)
- I work with or support textile makers but don’t make textiles myself
- I make textiles solely within a larger organisation, where the work I make is on behalf of the organisation
How to get involved?
Maker Survey
A two part Maker Survey will invite people currently practising making textiles in Scotland to share what exists for them and how they experience it. The Maker Survey will be open for responses 16 September – 21 October 2026.
Workshops
Textile makers will be invited to workshops later in 2026 to shape what could come next; to ‘dream big’ about how an ideal textile ecosystem in Scotland would look and feel, and enable small-scale practitioners to flourish.
Support Systems
Supporters can enrich our growing list of existing support systems for textile makers in Scotland by contributing their industry knowledge and expertise. Textile makers are also welcome to contribute. More to follow!
Project Team
The Project Team consists of AAS Board Members, Freelance Staff and Advisors. Four members are practising textile makers: weavers, digital fashion and kiltmaking.
To discuss Thread Counts, please email the Project Team, threadcounts@appliedartsscotland.org.uk.
Thread Counts is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
