Process: From Field to Fabric – Sarah Morton

Process is an exhibition tracing a journey, rooted in nature and Ulster Scots heritage, from field to fabric, and exploring wool, linen and copper.

My interest in fashion and textiles started as a child – we learned to knit in school, and as an Ulster Scot, I was surrounded by a family of makers and crafters. As I have gotten older, I have become more interested in where my raw materials come from and have spent a great deal of time sourcing locally produced wools. The research and learning about this has led me to deepen that interest – to become even more connected with the raw materials. Over the past year, my practice has developed to learning skills in wool processing – including collecting and grading the fleece, scouring, carding, spinning, and dyeing using locally foraged natural dyes. Through this process, I was introduced to weaving on ridged, four, and eight shaft looms. While I have tried weaving in the past this was just on a frame, and so felt very limited. However, the four and eight shaft looms were a revelation in terms of the complexity of pattern that I could design and produce. This opened up opportunity for me to translate all the complex patterns in my head – some of which I had struggled to translate into contemporary knitting patterns, into cloth format. I have since acquired an antique eight-shaft table loom, and am in the process of restoring and setting up. Through this, I have expanded the fibres I work with – discovering a love of linen, and more recently copper.

Process is an exhibition tracing my careful and considered journey from field to fabric. Deeply influenced by my love of nature and rural life, the exhibition documents what inspires me, the processes I have followed, what I have learned, and what I have produced so far through experimentation and playing with the fibres. Importantly, the exhibition is an opportunity for me to share this early stage in my evolving practice.

Selected recent exhibitions by Sarah Morton include: Maclaurin Gallery, Ayr – Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition: The stories they come: from the land, the sea, and the sky (2026); Design Museum, London – Future Observatory: Tools for Transition (2025); V+A Dundee – Design Hopes: From home to health (2025) and V+A Dundee – Design Hopes: Work in progress (2024).

Headline photograph by Jilly Noble of Sarah Morton in her studio at The Steeple, Newburgh.