Project - Battle of Jutland

I was fortunate to receive funding from Creative Scotland to embark on research for a tapestry weaving project on the Battle of Jutland. For this i visited Germany and Denmark and ended up doing a lot of research online and communicating with people from a variety of countries.

I would like to thank the following people for their help and encouragement with this project -

• Creative Scotland
• Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine, Scotland
• Dr Axel Griessmer, International Maritime Museum, Hamburg, Germany
• Gert Andersen and everyone at the Sea War Museum, Thyborøn, Jutland, Denmark
• JD Contractors, Denmark
• Queensferry History Group, Scotland
• Dr Innes McCartney
• Nick Jellicoe
• Nick Hewitt, National Museum of the Royal Navy
• Paul M Cederdorff
• Euan Adamson
• Harrison Wreid
• A huge thank you to the Facebook community of the Battle of Jutland
• My family!

When i set out to do this collection of tapestry weavings i was clear that i didn’t want nothing but black, blue, grey and white. So when i came across the multi beam scans in a book by Dr Innes McCartney of the Jutland wrecks the project jumped out. His work along with that of Gert Andersen and so many others, has, over the years uncovered many secrets of the ships and submarines from both Germany and Britain, that now lie on the North Sea bed.

The colours of these scans were intriguing and stunning. The technology now that can be used in archaeology is amazing. I loved watching the colours merge into one another and to see which colours indicated particular depths. But for me what struck me most was that this was going to be something very bold. I would have to step out of my comfort zone in terms of colours. I usually don’t weave with hot colours, so it was a fascinating exploration or voyage even. I had always woven with a cooler colours palette before and not been so experimental with knotting and exposing warp.

This project has taken me on a bewildering journey to other countries and to talk to people who have very kindly shared information about their ancestors who were involved in the Battle of Jutland.

Visiting museums in Germany and Denmark proved incredibly helpful with advice.

This project has become a commemoration of the Battle as i feel that there are so many ways in which a Battle can be commemorated, but finding different ways, creative, historical and educational is crucial. There were many more ships, u-boats, submarines that i wanted to explore, but only so many could be focussed on. I hope the films from the Scottish Maritime Museum provide an insight into my commemoration to the Battle of Jutland for both German and British crews.