Everywhere you go on the Scottish Island of Bute you are surrounded by grass, sheep and the sea: more or less in that order, unless it rains, of course, in which case you’ll see nothing at all. Bute is an hour’s drive west of Glasgow.
I'm here to visit Bute Fabrics. Rather than whisky, the company produces natural woollen fabrics with stunning colours and beautiful wefts. These fabrics are sustainably sourced and easy to clean.
If we’re given an Artifort chair to reupholster and if that chair has twenty or thirty-year-old fabric on it, there’s a good chance it came from Bute. That says a lot about the quality of the wool, which incidentally, comes from New Zealand. It also says a lot about the craftsmanship of the weavers.
Bute Fabrics is located in the centre of Rothesay, a small town on the Island of Bute. The Bute family co-owns the factory and has lived on the island since 1371. The family set up the company in 1947 to provide employment for returning servicemen and servicewomen at the end of the Second World War. I came to the small town to see the looms.
Managing director James MacAdam Sprint shows me how the test fabrics are added to the loom. The company originally made fabrics for the clothing industry, starting with the famous tartan pattern. But precisely because of its smallscale nature, Bute Fabrics soon started attracting young furniture designers as well.
With renewed vigour, the company has spent the past few years expanding its focus to include innovative, sustainable and stunning coloured fabrics for the furniture industry. The special wool comes from carefully selected sheep farmers from New Zealand with long fibres that make it particularly suitable for furniture upholstery.
This is the story of a passionate group of professionals who managed to take an old product into a new age – something that fits perfectly with the ideology of Artifort. At the end of the day, I leave the island with a renewed sense of energy. I hope to return to Bute one day and track the creative developments of this company. Next time, I’ll go in search of a good bottle of whisky as well.